{"id":202169,"date":"2026-03-02T23:48:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T23:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/gas-prices-soar-as-qatarenergy-halts-lng-production-after-iran-attacks-al-jazeera\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T23:48:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T23:48:08","slug":"gas-prices-soar-as-qatarenergy-halts-lng-production-after-iran-attacks-al-jazeera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/gas-prices-soar-as-qatarenergy-halts-lng-production-after-iran-attacks-al-jazeera\/","title":{"rendered":"Gas prices soar as QatarEnergy halts LNG production after Iran attacks – Al Jazeera"},"content":{"rendered":"

This comes after Saudi Arabia announced temporary closure of one of its largest oil facilities following drone attacks.<\/em>
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Qatar\u2019s state-run energy firm says it has halted liquefied natural gas production after Iranian attacks, sending gas prices soaring in Europe and Asia, as Saudi Arabia announced it was temporarily shutting down some units of the Ras Tanura oil refinery located near the country\u2019s eastern region after a fire broke out following a drone attack.
\u201cDue to military attacks on QatarEnergy\u2019s operating facilities in Ras Laffan Industrial City and Mesaieed Industrial City in the State of Qatar, QatarEnergy has ceased production of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and associated products,\u201d the world\u2019s largest LNG producer said in a statement on Monday.
Shortly after the announcement, benchmark Dutch and British wholesale gas prices soared by almost 50 percent, while benchmark Asian LNG prices jumped almost 39 percent.
Earlier, Qatar\u2019s Defence Ministry said the country was attacked by two drones launched from Iran. \u201cOne drone targeted a water tank belonging to a power plant in Mesaieed, and the other targeted an energy facility in Ras Laffan Industrial City, belonging to QatarEnergy, without reporting any human casualties,\u201d it said in a statement.
\u201cAll damages and losses resulting from the attack will be assessed by the relevant authorities, and an official statement will be issued later,\u201d it added.
The Saudi Ministry of Defence, in reports carried by the state-run Saudi Press Agency (SPA), said two drones had \u201cattempted to attack\u201d the Ras Tanura refinery on Monday morning, and that a \u201csmall\u201d fire had broken out after they were intercepted.
Footage verified by Al Jazeera showed plumes of smoke rising from the oil facility, located on Saudi Arabia\u2019s Gulf coast. The ministry said the refinery \u201csustained limited damage\u201d, but there were no casualties.
Ras Tanura oil refinery, one of the world\u2019s largest oil processing facilities and located near the eastern city of Dammam, has a capacity of 550,000 barrels per day. The facility is home to one of the largest refineries in the Middle East and is considered a cornerstone of the Saudi Arabia\u2019s energy sector.
The attacks come as oil tankers have been piling up on either side of the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world\u2019s seaborne oil and the bulk of Qatari gas flows.<\/p>\n

The maritime disruptions and fears of a prolonged conflict have led to a sharp rise in global oil prices<\/a>, which will have a significant impact on the global economy.
Oil prices surged as much as 13 percent intraday to above $82 a barrel, the highest since January 2025. Prices were already some 25 percent higher earlier in the day, but extended gains after QatarEnergy\u2019s \u2060production halt.
The Dutch TTF natural gas contract, considered the European benchmark for LNG prices, rose more than 25 percent in the morning. By 11:31 GMT, it was up \u20607.44 euros at 39.40 euros per megawatt hour (MWh).
Meanwhile, the S&P Global Energy Japan Korea Marker (JKM), widely used as an Asian LNG benchmark, sat \u2060at $15.068 per million British thermal units (MMBtu), Platts data showed.
Iran has been launching retaliatory strikes, mainly targeting Israel and military facilities of the United States across the Middle East, after the US and Israel launched massive air strikes on the country.
In a statement published by SPA, the Saudi Ministry of Energy said some operations had been halted as a \u201cprecautionary measure\u201d and that it did not foresee \u201cany impact on the supply of petroleum products to local markets\u201d.
Saudi Arabia had earlier said it would \u201ctake all necessary measures to defend its security and protect its territory, citizens, and residents, including the option of responding to the aggression\u201d after Iran targeted the capital Riyadh and the country\u2019s eastern region with strikes over the weekend.
The US, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates issued a joint statement on Sunday condemning Iranian attacks across the region<\/a> and affirming their right to self-defence.
Rob Geist Pinfold, lecturer in defence studies at King\u2019s College London, told Al Jazeera that Iran \u201cknows exactly what it\u2019s doing\u201d by attacking the Gulf countries.
\u201cThese countries have less of an appetite for a fight because, at the end of the day, this is not their war. So, Iran is banking that they will want a ceasefire as soon as possible, that they will be pressuring the [US President Donald] Trump administration. But we have no signs of that whatsoever so far,\u201d he said.
Pinfold added that there seems to be a \u201cshow of force\u201d and \u201cof unity\u201d coming from the Gulf states, at least rhetorically.
\u201cThey\u2019re trying to get the message across that they are one and that they are united and that they are resilient,\u201d Pinfold said. \u201cBut under the surface, there are profound disagreements here about how to engage with Iran and whether to engage with Iran at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Follow Al Jazeera English:<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This comes after Saudi Arabia announced temporary closure of one of its largest oil facilities following drone attacks.ShareSaveQatar\u2019s state-run energy firm says it has halted liquefied natural gas production after Iranian attacks, sending gas prices soaring in Europe and Asia, as Saudi Arabia announced it was temporarily shutting down some units of the Ras Tanura […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":202170,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-202169","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}