Ras Laffan Industrial City, about an hour north of Qatar’s capital Doha, is known as the “gas capital of the world”.
The energy complex, which processes and exports about 20 per cent of the world’s liquefied natural gas (LNG), lies at the heart of Qatar’s stunning economic success.
This factor has made it a target for retaliation by Iran, after its own gasfield – South Pars – was hit by an Israeli air strike on Wednesday.
By Thursday morning, Ras Laffan was in flames after an Iranian missile strike caused extensive damage to the world’s largest liquefied natural gas plant.
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Two facilities that produce 17 per cent of the country’s LNG exports were affected. It will take three to five years to repair them, QatarEnergy’s chief executive officer said on Thursday.
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The attack on Qatar, in particular, raises the spectre of long-term inflationary pressure in energy prices resulting from the US and Israel’s war on Iran.
While oil and gas flows through the Strait of Hormuz could resume once the conflict ends, severe damage to any production facilities in the region will have a lasting impact on the global economy.
US president Donald Trump responded to the attack on Qatar by pressing for a de-escalation. He said Israel would refrain from further strikes on Iran’s South Pars gas field. However, he also threatened to “massively blow up the entirety” of South Pars if Iran targets Qatar’s LNG facilities again.
Tehran’s response to Israel’s assault on South Pars “is under way and not yet complete”, the semi-official Iranian Students’ News Agency cited a military spokesman as saying on Thursday.
It is a reminder that, if anything, the war is escalating, and risks pulling the wider region into the conflict.
Gulf states such as Saudi Arabia are reeling from being targeted by Iran.
Iran’s aim has been to force the US to back off and send a global economic warning over something that is has real leverage: energy.
While Gulf states have so far refused to take part in a war launched by Israel in partnership with the US, Saudi foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan warned Iran on Thursday that tolerance of its attacks on his country and Gulf states is limited, and called on Tehran to promptly “recalculate” its strategy.
He said heavily armed Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states have “very significant capacities and capabilities” which could be employed if they “choose to do so”. He argued Iran’s targeting of specific sites demonstrated these strikes were “premeditated, preplanned and well thought out”.
He refused to give a deadline for Saudi and Gulf patience to run out and said once the war ends, Saudi restoration of relations with Iran could take a long time, as trust “has completely been shattered”.
