Iran hit the site of the world’s largest liquefied natural gas facility in Qatar with a ballistic missile, inflicting “extensive damage” in retaliation for an attack on the Islamic republic’s South Pars gasfield.
The attack on Wednesday marks a significant escalation in the Middle East war and threatens major repercussions for global energy markets. Qatar is the second-largest exporter of LNG in the world, and the biggest supplier to Asia.
Qatar’s defence ministry said on X that Iran had fired five ballistic missiles, with four intercepted and one hitting Ras Laffan, a huge industrial complex that is home to state-owned QatarEnergy’s LNG plants and a fuel refinery. It is also the location of Shell’s $18bn Pearl GTL plant, which turns gas into chemical feedstocks and fuel.