Oil and gas prices have surged as Iran intensified strikes on facilities across the Persian Gulf, sparking calls for de-escalation from global leaders amid fears of a prolonged disruption to global energy markets.
The price of Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, climbed past $115 per barrel Thursday morning, as Gulf states reported more attacks on critical infrastructure. The price of European natural gas futures also rose.
“I hope everybody returns to reason,” French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters in Brussels, noting the infrastructure attacks’ potential long-term impact on global markets and calling for a moratorium on such strikes, as well as those on civilians.
Qatar’s state-owned energy company said several liquefied natural gas facilities were hit by missile attacks early Thursday, causing fires and “extensive further damage,” in addition to the attacks on Ras Laffan Industrial City, a hub for exports of LNG, a day earlier.
Kuwait’s National Petroleum Company reported two refineries were targeted by drones, causing fires. Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Defense said that it was assessing damage after a drone strike at the Samref refinery and that it had intercepted a ballistic missile launched toward the port of Yanbu on the Red Sea.
In a joint statement Thursday, representatives from 12 countries in the region, including Qatar, Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon, denounced what they called Iran’s “deliberate attacks” targeting civilian areas as well as oil facilities, airports, diplomatic buildings and residences.
In a lengthy post on Truth Sociallate Wednesday, Trump appeared to distance the United States from an Israeli attack on the South Pars gas field — the world’s largest — earlier in the day, saying Israel carried out the attack “out of anger for what has taken place in the Middle East.”
“The United States knew nothing about this particular attack, and the country of Qatar was in no way, shape, or form, involved with it, nor did it have any idea that it was going to happen,” Trump said, adding that Iran “unfairly” attacked a Qatari gas facility in retaliation.
“NO MORE ATTACKS WILL BE MADE BY ISRAEL” on the South Pars field unless Iran attacked Qatar, Trump said, in which case the U.S. would “massively blow up the entirety” of the gas field with “amount of strength and power that Iran has never seen or witnessed before.”
“I do not want to authorize this level of violence and destruction because of the long term implications that it will have on the future of Iran, but if Qatar’s LNG is again attacked, I will not hesitate to do so,” he wrote.
The post followed strikes that jolted energy markets and further embroiled Persian Gulf nations in the U.S. and Israeli war with Iran. After Israel struck the South Pars field, Iran fired back with missile attacks that caused “extensive damage” at the major Qatari gas facility, according to Qatar’s state-owned energy company.
“An eye for an eye equation is in effect, and a new level of confrontation has begun,” Iranian parliament Speaker Mohammad Ghalibaf said after Wednesday’s attack on South Pars.
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