Iranian missile and drone strikes struck Qatar's Ras Laffan Industrial City in the early hours of March 19, causing what QatarEnergy CEO Saad al-Kaabi described as "extensive damage" to two of the facility's 14 liquefied natural gas production trains. The attack knocked approximately 17 percent of Qatar's LNG export capacity offline, representing roughly 12.8 million metric tons of annual output, and forced QatarEnergy to declare force majeure on multiple long-term supply contracts with buyers in Italy, Belgium, South Korea, and China.

The Washington Examiner described the strikes as "dangerous territory" for global energy supply, while NPR reported that the attack came in direct retaliation for Israel's strike on Iran's South Pars gas field on March 18 — the same shared geological structure that underlies Qatar's North Field, the world's largest natural gas reservoir. QatarEnergy CEO al-Kaabi said the damage could take up to five years to fully repair, with annual revenue losses estimated at billion.

European natural gas markets responded sharply. The Dutch Title Transfer Facility (TTF) front-month contract — the European benchmark — surged as much as 35 percent before settling at a gain of roughly 24 percent, reaching 74 euros per megawatt-hour, the highest intraday level since January 2023. CNBC reported that Brent crude simultaneously hit a barrel before easing. Qatar subsequently expelled Iranian military attaches and called the strikes a violation of international law.

Qatar halted all LNG production pending damage assessment. The force majeure declaration affects some of the world's largest importers, putting a significant share of Europe's winter supply security at risk heading into next year. Trump threatened via social media to "massively blow up the entire South Pars Gas Field" if Iran continued attacks on Qatar, a statement that drew both international alarm and bipartisan concern on Capitol Hill about further energy market disruption.