Iran carried out a new wave of attacks on Gulf energy infrastructure, hitting liquefied natural gas and oil facilities in Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates in retaliation for an Israeli strike on its main gas field. The strikes represent a significant escalation in the region and have pushed global fuel prices higher.
Qatar reported that missiles struck the large Ras Laffan LNG complex, igniting a fire that firefighters later extinguished. QatarEnergy said production had already been suspended after earlier attacks and that the latest barrage caused sizeable fires and extensive additional damage, possibly delaying the return of supplies to the market even after hostilities end.
In Kuwait, a drone attack on the Mina Al-Ahmadi refinery triggered a fire but caused no injuries, the state news agency reported. Mina Al-Ahmadi is one of the Middle East’s largest refineries, with capacity around 730,000 barrels per day.
UAE authorities said operations were halted at the Habshan gas facility and the Bab field after overnight Iranian strikes, which officials described as a dangerous escalation. A ship burned off the UAE coast and another vessel was damaged off Qatar, underscoring the hazards to shipping posed by tensions and Iran’s control over access to the Strait of Hormuz.
An industry source said Saudi Aramco’s SAMREF refinery in Yanbu was targeted in an aerial attack but suffered minimal impact. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had issued evacuation warnings to several oil facilities across Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar, including SAMREF, after the strike on Iran’s South Pars gas field.
The developments follow an Israeli attack on Iran’s South Pars field that officials called a major escalation in the conflict. U.S. President Donald Trump said Israel had struck the Iranian gas installations but indicated he did not expect further such attacks unless Iran provoked additional retaliation.
Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister warned that Riyadh reserves the right to take military action against Iran, saying trust with Tehran has been shattered after Iranian missiles were fired toward the kingdom. The comments were among the strongest from Riyadh since the war began.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard also said it launched multiple-warhead missiles at Israel in response to the killing of Larijani, and footage circulated showing at least one missile releasing a cluster of submunitions. Meanwhile, Israeli strikes continued to pressure Hezbollah in Lebanon; strikes on apartment buildings in Beirut killed at least a dozen people, and Israel said the buildings were used by the group to store funds, a claim not independently verified.
Since the conflict escalated, shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has been disrupted, with only a handful of vessels from a limited number of countries able to transit. Iran has said the waterway remains open in general but excluded access to U.S. forces and allied ships.
The strikes on LNG and refinery facilities raise the prospect of prolonged supply disruptions across the global energy market, and officials warned that damage at major Gulf export and processing sites could hinder efforts to stabilize supplies even if fighting subsides.
