Energy prices soar, Iran and US trade threats after Qatar gas hit

Oil and gas prices soared Thursday after Iran hit the world’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility in Qatar and threatened to destroy the region’s energy infrastructure, while Donald Trump warned of a furious US response if such attacks continued.

International benchmark Brent surged 10 percent before falling back while European gas rose 35 percent after Iran attacked Qatar’s huge Ras Laffan LNG facility in retaliation for an Israeli strike on its South Pars gas field.

Trump, whose country started the war alongside Israel with their attack on Iran on February 28, said Washington did not know about the strike on South Pars.

But he warned the United States would itself “blow up” the Iranian gas field if Tehran did not stop attacking Qatar.

Iran’s military responded Thursday with defiance, saying it had been a “major mistake” to hit South Pars, which supplies around 70 percent of the country’s domestic natural gas.

“If it is repeated, subsequent attacks against your energy infrastructure and that of your allies will not stop until their complete destruction,” operational command Khatam Al-Anbiya said in a statement carried by Fars news agency.

– ‘Lasting impact’ –

Qatar is one of the world’s top LNG producers, alongside the United States, Australia and Russia, and its Ras Laffan facility is the world’s largest LNG hub.

It has been repeatedly targeted by Iran since the war began. State-run QatarEnergy said Thursday that two waves of Iranian strikes had caused “sizeable fires and extensive further damage” to several LNG facilities.

French President Emmanuel Macron condemned Thursday the “reckless escalation”.

He warned that if Middle Eastern energy “production capacities themselves are destroyed, this war will have a much more lasting impact”.

He called for “direct talks between the Americans and Iranians on this matter”.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office also warned that “attacks on critical infrastructure risked pushing the region further into crisis”, after talks with Macron and NATO chief Mark Rutte.

Gulf nations had also warned of the fall-out from Israel’s attack on Iran’s South Pars gas field, which is part of the South Pars/North Dome megafield, the largest known gas reserve in the world that is shared with Qatar.

The United Arab Emirates said that targeting energy infrastructure poses a “direct threat to global energy security”.

Meanwhile Saudi Arabia said Thursday it reserved the “right to take military actions” if necessary after repeated missile and drone attacks on its energy facilities from Iran.

Energy prices had already spiralled since tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which normally carries a fifth of the world’s oil and LNG, was brought to a near standstill by the threat of Iranian attacks.

Since the war began, fuel shortages have sparked long queues at petrol stations across Asia, where many economies are heavily dependent on fossil fuel imports, while Sri Lanka and Philippines have shifted to a four-day week.

It is also hitting businesses. “I am currently spending more than 33 percent more on fuel than I used to,” said Adeola Sanni, a 36-year-old Nigerian entrepreneur making corporate uniforms in Lagos.

– ‘War of attrition’ –

A US-based rights group has reported more than 3,000 people killed in Iran by the US-Israeli strikes, a figure that could not be independently verified.

In the Iranian capital on Thursday, however, there was little to suggest a country mired in war.

On the eve of Nowruz, the Persian New Year typically marked with celebrations, the city centre filled as usual with traffic jams and street vendors haggling over the price of clothing and fruit.

The security presence was nevertheless even greater than usual, with heavily armed security forces visible on certain thoroughfares as well as an increased number of armoured vehicles.

Iran’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei earlier vowed retaliation for Israel’s attack on its gas facilities.

He has not been seen in public since he was appointed to succeed his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed by the US and Israeli at the start of the war.

Israel this week also killed national security chief Ali Larijani and intelligence chief Esmail Khatib as part of a long-standing strategy to take out their enemies’ leaders.

Yet Tehran is still unleashing attacks across the Middle East.

US intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard told Congress the Iranian government remained “intact but largely degraded”.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday there is no “time frame” for ending the war, but said that “we’re very much on track”.

“It will be at the president’s choosing, ultimately, where we say, ‘Hey, we’ve achieved what we need to.'”

Commentators said the attacks on energy infrastructure showed gaps between the US and Israel over how to proceed in the conflict.

In a post on social media, Trump late Wednesday said Israel had “violently lashed out” in “anger” in attacking the Iran gas hub.

“The conflict is drifting into a war of attrition — with no clear signs of regime collapse in Iran,” said Danny Citrinowicz, a senior fellow at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, on X.

The attacks “underscored just how unstructured this campaign has become — lacking strategic clarity, long-term planning, and a defined end state”.

burs-ar/ser