Brent crude spiked to $113.77 per barrel Thursday — its highest since the opening days of the conflict — after Iranian missiles hit Ras Laffan, Qatar’s massive liquefied natural gas terminal, sending shockwaves through global energy markets.
The strike on the world’s largest LNG hub came after Israel attacked South Pars, the gas field Iran shares with Qatar. European natural gas prices climbed more than 30 percent in the aftermath, while Brent’s overall gain on the day exceeded five percent. West Texas Intermediate traded near $97.
Tehran’s Revolutionary Guards left little ambiguity about what comes next: “We warn you once again that you made a big mistake in attacking the energy infrastructure of the Islamic republic. If it is repeated again, further attacks on your energy infrastructure and that of your allies will not stop until it is completely destroyed.”
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian echoed that position on X, writing that the South Pars strikes “will complicate the situation and could have uncontrollable consequences, the scope of which could engulf the entire world.”
Stock markets across Asia buckled under the pressure. Tokyo shed more than three percent, Seoul more than two, with losses spreading to Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, Singapore, Manila, and elsewhere — wiping out gains from a tech-driven rally earlier in the week.
In Abu Dhabi, a gas facility was shut down after debris from intercepted missiles fell near the installation. The UN nuclear watchdog confirmed a projectile had struck Iran’s only operating nuclear power plant, though authorities reported no damage.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Washington “knew nothing” of the Israeli attack on South Pars, but issued a conditional threat: if Iran continued striking Qatar, the U.S. would “massively blow up the entirety of the South Pars Gas Field.” He added that Israel would halt further strikes on the site if Tehran stood down.
French President Emmanuel Macron urged all sides on X to “implement without delay a moratorium on strikes targeting civilian infrastructure, particularly energy and water infrastructure.”
