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The escalating attacks on key oil and gas projects in the Middle East are expected to fuel a new phase of the ongoing conflict, with profound consequences for the world\u2019s energy supplies and the global economy.<\/p>\n
The Iran regime has vowed to target a string of key energy infrastructure across the region after warning that an Israeli strike on a production facility for its largest gasfield at South Pars on Wednesday had ignited a \u201cfull-scale economic war\u201d.<\/p>\n
South Pars is part of the world\u2019s largest natural gasfield, which is shared by Iran and Qatar. It is located offshore between the two Gulf states and forms a domed extension to Qatar\u2019s giant North Field.<\/p>\n
Within hours of the South Pars strike, Iranian missiles hit Ras Laffan, the site of Qatar\u2019s core liquefied natural gas processing facilities, causing \u201cextensive damage\u201d to the world\u2019s largest suppliers of seaborne gas cargoes, according to Qatar\u2019s state gas company.<\/p>\n
Gasfield map updated version<\/p>\n
The damaged facilities will take three to five years to repair, according to the QatarEnergy chief executive, Saad al-Kaabi, raising fears of a protracted global gas supply crisis.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never in my wildest dreams would have thought that Qatar would be \u2013 Qatar and the region \u2013 in such an attack, especially from a brotherly Muslim country in the month of Ramadan, attacking us in this way,\u201d al-Kaabi told the Reuters news agency.<\/p>\n
<\/span>QatarEnergy\u2019s liquefied natural gas production site in Ras Laffan.<\/span> Photograph: Reuters<\/p>\n The Qatari state confirmed an attack involving five ballistic missiles launched from Iran. Although four were intercepted, the fifth missile struck the Ras Laffan industrial complex, which is responsible for producing the state\u2019s gas exports.<\/p>\n A Qatari government spokesperson warned that targeting energy infrastructure \u201cconstitutes a threat to global energy security, as well as to the peoples of the region and its environment\u201d.<\/p>\n Qatar\u2019s gas exports made up a fifth of the global LNG market last year, of which about 80% was shipped to energy-hungry developing economies in Asia. A long-term disruption to its exports would have serious consequences for gas buyers around the world by lifting market prices globally.<\/p>\n After the South Pars attack, Iran\u2019s state media warned that swathes of prominent regional oil and gas targets belonging to Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar were now \u201cdirect and legitimate targets\u201d and should be evacuated before attacks began \u201cwithin hours\u201d.<\/p>\n Sites threatened or targeted by Iran since Wednesday.<\/p>\n These include Saudi Arabia\u2019s Samref refinery, near the Red Sea port of Yanbu, and the Jubail petrochemical complex, as well as the UAE\u2019s al-Hosn gasfield and Qatar\u2019s Mesaieed petrochemical complex.<\/p>\n <\/span>A satellite image taken in early March from above Saudi Arabia\u2019s western Red Sea port of Yanbu.<\/span> Photograph: 2026 Planet Labs PBC\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cSo far, Iran has largely followed through on its stated actions, which makes this a highly credible threat,\u201d according to Aditya Saraswat, of the consultancy Rystad Energy.<\/p>\n The Saudi defence ministry confirmed a drone attack on the Samref refinery on Thursday. It has intercepted a ballistic missile launched towards Yanbu, which is Saudi Arabia\u2019s only outlet for crude exports amid Iran\u2019s stranglehold on the strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n <\/span>Footage shows fire in Saudi Arabia’s Yanbu refinery and Kuwait’s Mina Abdullah refinery<\/span><\/p>\n Kuwait\u2019s Mina al-Ahmadi and Mina Abdullah refineries were also targeted by drones, resulting in fires at both sites, according to Kuwait\u2019s state news agency.<\/p>\n <\/span>Smoke billowing from the Mina petroleum facility in Oman on 16 March.<\/span> Photograph: US Geological Survey\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Meanwhile, at the UAE\u2019s Habshan complex, another of the world\u2019s largest gas processing facilities, falling debris from intercepted missiles caused the facility to shut down, according to the state oil and gas giant Adnoc. The company said its Bab oilfield was also targeted.<\/p>\n Gas markets surged in response to the strikes, with the European benchmark quickly climbing 30% higher as the trading day began to double the pre-crisis market price and reach the highest level since early 2023.<\/p>\n Gas prices chart <\/p>\n \u201cWe are now well on the road to the doomsday gas crisis scenario,\u201d said Saul Kavonic, the head of research at the consultancy MST Marquee. He warned that the LNG supply disruption could last for months or even years once the war ends, depending the extent of the damage, keeping gas prices high.<\/p>\n The risk of prolonged military aggression and long-term damage to the region\u2019s energy production facilities have compounded fears in the global oil markets, which are still reeling from the greatest energy supply shock in history after the shutdown of the strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n Oil price chart <\/p>\n The price of Brent crude, the international benchmark, is expected to breach the $120 a barrel mark in the immediate aftermath, according to Rystad Energy analysts, with further price rises possible depending on the severity of the damage sustained.<\/p>\n Donald Trump has warned Iran against further attacks on Qatar\u2019s LNG facilities, threatening to \u201cmassively blow up the entirety of the South Pars gasfield\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The escalating attacks on key oil and gas projects in the Middle East are expected to fuel a new phase of the ongoing conflict, with profound consequences for the world\u2019s energy supplies and the global economy. The Iran regime has vowed to target a string of key energy infrastructure across the region after warning that<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47156,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[1839,6032,898,867,8384,84,897,268,20309,1068,23465,7035,261],"class_list":{"0":"post-47155","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-attacks","9":"tag-doomsday","10":"tag-east","11":"tag-gas","12":"tag-guide","13":"tag-iran","14":"tag-middle","15":"tag-oil","16":"tag-scenario","17":"tag-site","18":"tag-usisrael","19":"tag-visual","20":"tag-war"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/47156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}More sites threatened and targeted<\/h2>\n
Market reaction<\/h2>\n