Vantor satellite image shows firefighting efforts and damage assessment at Ras Tanura oil refinery in Saudi Arabia following a fire incident in early March 2026. Maxar/Satellite image (c) 2026 Vantor via Getty
New drone strikes hit a major oil refinery in Bahrain on Thursday. The Bahrain News Agency said missiles fired by Iran caused the damage.
Recent conflicts in the Middle East have often spared energy infrastructure or limited damage to one country. That is not the case in this war with Iran. In less than a week, strikes have hit energy infrastructure in at least six countries. Refineries in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have been struck, officials in those countries report. Qatar’s Ras Laffan liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility — the world’s largest — was also hit. Iran has been blamed for many of the strikes, while Iran in turn has accused Israel of hitting a Saudi refinery.
“I do not think there’s precedent for this kind of regionwide conflict with facilities coming under attack from all kinds of methods, over a wide area, and all types of facilities at basically the same time,” says Robin Mills, chief executive of Qamar Energy, an energy advisory firm based in Dubai.
About a fifth of global LNG comes from Qatar. LNG is natural gas cooled to roughly −260°F for shipment by sea; it’s used for power generation, heating and petrochemicals. State-owned QatarEnergy shut down production after the strikes at Ras Laffan and declared force majeure, a legal relief from contractual obligations. Like most Gulf producers, QatarEnergy cannot move cargoes through the Strait of Hormuz while the situation is unstable. Antoine Halff, chief analyst at Kayrros, says buyers in Asia and Europe are likely to miss Qatari cargoes for weeks or longer. Israel has also shut down some offshore gas production.
The world is currently oversupplied with crude oil, but not with natural gas and LNG, says Gerry Kepes, president of Competitive Energy Strategies. It is the end of winter in the Northern Hemisphere and Europe’s gas storage levels are low. “This may be the first time in history that the shutdown of LNG from the Gulf will have a more pervasive and negative impact than a cessation of crude oil exports,” Kepes says. Simon Flowers, chairman and chief analyst at Wood Mackenzie, warned that the consequences for gas and LNG could rival the effects that followed Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Natural gas prices have risen sharply since the war began: European benchmark prices are up more than 60%, and Asian prices have risen over 40%. Some LNG producers outside the Middle East — notably in Australia and Malaysia — could redirect cargoes to buyers in Asia and Europe. The U.S. has become the world’s largest LNG exporter, with new Gulf Coast facilities scheduled to open this year and next. Still, Mills notes, there is little spare LNG capacity globally: “Countries and companies don’t really carry LNG spare capacity. They run the plants as close to full out as they can almost all the time.”
Financial markets are already reacting. Australian LNG producers Woodside Energy Group and Santos have seen share prices rise more than about 9% and 10% respectively in the week since the war began. In the U.S., Cheniere and Venture Global stocks rose roughly 8% and 27% over the same period.