US president Donald Trump has threatened to completely destroy Iran's South Pars gas field should Tehran continue its attacks against Qatar — in comments published shortly before state-owned QatarEnergy reported "extensive damage" to LNG facilities at Ras Laffan in a new attack earlier today.
Trump, in a post on his social media platform, denied knowledge of yesterday's attack on the South Pars gas field, which he said was conducted by Israel and did not involve Qatar — which was later targeted by Iranian missiles in apparent retaliation.
Israel will not carry out any further attacks on South Pars unless Iran attacks Qatar, Trump said. But if Qatar's LNG facilities are attacked again, the US, with or without Israel's consent, 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," Trump said.
Soon after Trump's comments, QatarEnergy said Ras Laffan had suffered a new attack early on 19 March. Several LNG facilities were the subject of missile attacks, causing sizeable fires and extensive further damage, it said, without giving further details.
Ras Laffan was also hit by missiles on 18 March. That attack caused extensive damage to the Pearl gas-to-liquids (GTL) facility, QatarEnergy said today.
Iran said on 18 March that it would retaliate against what it described as US and Israeli strikes on its gas treatment facilities. It identified the 400,000 b/d Samref refinery at Yanbu and the Sadara petrochemical complex at Jubail in Saudi Arabia, Qatar Chemical in Doha, the 305,000 b/d Ras Laffan refinery, north of Doha, and the Al-Hosn sour gas field in Abu Dhabi as "direct and legitimate targets" to "be targeted in the coming hours."
The continued attacks and increased targeting of energy facilities sent crude futures higher by 5pc today. The front-month May Brent crude contract on Ice rose by 5.1pc to a high of $112.86/bl, while April WTI Nymex increased by 3.8pc to $100.02/bl.
Separately, UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) reported another vessel attack, 11 nautical miles (20km) off Khawr Fakkan in the UAE.
A ship was struck by an unknown projectile at 23:01 GMT on 18 March, resulting in a fire onboard, the UKMTO said. The identity of the vessel is unclear.
Observed traffic through the strait of Hormuz is currently at about 4/d, the UKMTO said.
There have been more than 20 incidents involving commercial vessels and offshore infrastructure across the Mideast Gulf, strait of Hormuz and Gulf of Oman, since the start of the hostilities on 28 February, according to the UKMTO.
"The incidents involve a wide range of vessel types and flag states, with no consistent pattern of Western ownership linkage, suggesting that the current strike pattern reflects a campaign aimed at broad maritime disruption rather than selective vessel targeting," the UKMTO said.
