Hours after Israel hit South Pars, the world’s largest natural gas field located in the Persian Gulf and shared between Iran and Qatar, Iranian missiles on Thursday morning (March 19) struck the world’s biggest liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility in Qatar’s Ras Laffan Industrial City.These attacks have marked a major escalation in the conflict raging in West Asia, with specific energy infrastructure now being targeted, raising prolonged risks of supply disruption. Consequently, the price of international oil benchmark Brent, which was already at a little over $100 per barrel this week, has now breached the $110 mark. It is now over 50% higher than the pre-West Asia conflict levels. Natural gas prices also shot up significantly.Iran released a statement hours earlier that it would also be targeting other facilities in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, apart from Ras Laffan, in response to the attack on the South Pars gas field. Saudi Arabia and the UAE have said they intercepted missiles and drones from Iran.While the true extent of damage is not yet known, the strikes have significant escalatory implications. First, it is now unclear how much time it will take for gas output from these facilities to return to normal, even if the war were to stop. Two, until now, the concerns have been about the transit pathway, but they have now moved further upstream to the production and supply side.Moreover, it’s clear that Israel is now undoubtedly calling the shots in terms of further escalation, which includes a no-holds-bar attack on energy facilities, and the extremists in Iran are willing to push the attacks into a self-destructive phase. Both players are willing to play this Russian roulette, even as the world faces the escalating impact of spiralling energy prices.Notably, US President Donald Trump said that Washington did not have advance knowledge of the Israeli attack on the South Pars gas field, and Qatar was not involved either. Trump even declared that Israel will no longer attack South Pars unless Iran attacks “a very innocent” Qatar. But he also warned Iran that if it attacked Qatar’s LNG facilities, the US would “blow up the entirety” of the South Pars gas field.How energy flows may be affected after Ras Laffan strikeThe Ras Laffan hit is of particular significance, not just for global LNG flows but also for India. QatarEnergy’s primary LNG production units, liquefaction plants, and export infrastructure are all concentrated in Ras Laffan, accounting for roughly a fifth of global LNG supply.Story continues below this adQatar had already suspended LNG production at the facility following an attack — evidently smaller in scale than the recent strikes — earlier this month. Experts had expected LNG flows from Ras Laffan to be reinstated quickly once the conflict passed. Still, with extensive damage from the latest strikes now being reported, it remains unclear how long it will take for LNG supplies to normalise even after the threat subsides.A statement from Qatar Energy said that its Ras Laffan Industrial Complex has been targeted with missiles, “causing sizable fires” and “extensive” damage. There have been no reports of any injuries, given that the facility was evacuated because Iran had said that it would target Ras Laffan and other facilities across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region in response to targeted attacks on its South Pars gas field.Explained | ‘The US knew nothing’: What Trump’s distancing from Israel’s oil field strike says about Iran war“In addition to the previous attack on Ras Laffan Industrial City on Wednesday 18 March 2026 that resulted in extensive damage to the Pearl GTL (Gas-to-Liquids) facility, QatarEnergy confirms that in the early hours of Thursday 19 March 2026, several of its Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) facilities were the subject of missile attacks, causing sizeable fires and extensive further damage. Emergency response teams were deployed immediately to contain the resulting damage with no reported casualties,” QatarEnergy said on Thursday.India’s LNG dependency on QatarQatar is India’s largest source of LNG. India depends on LNG imports to meet roughly half of its natural gas demand, and over two-fifths of the country’s LNG comes from Qatar — almost all of it from Ras Laffan.Story continues below this adAccording to Commerce Ministry data, India imported 27 million tonnes of LNG in 2024-25, of which 11.2 million tonnes, or 41.4%, came from Qatar. QatarEnergy has an LNG production capacity of 77 million tonnes per annum, which is under expansion. In 2025, QatarEnergy exported around 81 million tonnes of LNG.With LNG from Qatar and other sources in West Asia unable to reach India due to the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz and a production suspension by QatarEnergy, India had already cut natural gas supplies to certain industries.Beyond LNG, India, like many other countries that rely on West Asia for a large share of their energy imports, would be extremely worried about the prospect of an escalation in attacks on critical energy infrastructure.So far, the disruption from the conflict has largely been a supply chain problem, stemming from the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, as numerous tankers carrying energy supplies are stuck in the Persian Gulf, with only a few managing to trickle out. But if major oil production and export infrastructure get badly hit in the next phase of this conflict, it will become a real supply crisis.Story continues below this adOverall, India depends on imports to meet over 88% of its crude oil requirement, 60% of its LPG needs, and around 50% of its natural gas requirement. For a large share of these energy imports, India depends on West Asia, from which they primarily come to India through the Strait of Hormuz. Around 2.5–2.7 million bpd of India’s crude imports — accounting for about half of the country’s total oil imports — have transited the Strait in recent months; the longer-term average is about 40%. This oil is mainly from Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Kuwait. India doesn’t buy Iranian oil due to American sanctions on Tehran.Also in Explained | The other Hormuz: Why mountains near the Persian Gulf are rainbow-colouredIndia’s dependence on the Strait for LNG and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) supplies is greater than for crude. Roughly 60% of India’s LNG imports come through the Strait of Hormuz, the figure is a staggering 90% for LPG, as evidenced by the LPG supply crisis the country is already grappling with.Trump’s passive-aggressive statement against striking energy infraFollowing the attacks, Trump said in a seemingly passive-aggressive social media post that the US “knew nothing” about the Israeli attack, Qatar was not involved in it, and Iran “did not know this” and attacked a part of Qatar’s LNG facility.“Israel, out of anger for what has taken place in the Middle East, has violently lashed out at a major facility known as South Pars Gas Field in Iran. A relatively small section of the whole has been hit. The United States knew nothing about this particular attack, and the country of Qatar was in no way, shape, or form, involved with it, nor did it have any idea that it was going to happen. Unfortunately, Iran did not know this, or any of the pertinent facts pertaining to the South Pars attack, and unjustifiably and unfairly attacked a portion of Qatar’s LNG Gas facility,” Trump said in his Truth Social post.Story continues below this ad“NO MORE ATTACKS WILL BE MADE BY ISRAEL pertaining to this extremely important and valuable South Pars Field unless Iran unwisely decides to attack a very innocent, in this case, Qatar – In which instance the United States of America, with or without the help or consent of Israel, will massively blow up the entirety of the South Pars Gas Field at an amount of strength and power that Iran has never seen or witnessed before. I do not want to authorize this level of violence and destruction because of the long term implications that it will have on the future of Iran, but if Qatar’s LNG is again attacked, I will not hesitate to do so,” the US President added.At least part of the post appeared de-escalatory on targeting of critical energy infrastructure in West Asia. But the extent of Trump’s control over Israel’s actions, this conflict, and how it proceeds hereon is anybody’s guess.“I think the US has now lost the initiative — both offensively as well as toward peace; they’ll tag along with Israel and try and find an exit once they’ve hammered Iran some more. The Israelis will keep going. Iran, unfortunately, seems to be heading toward something like the worst-case scenario… (It is) difficult to see normalcy in the sense of what we had before 28 February,” an energy sector analyst said.