With tensions soaring in the Middle East, the price of Brent crude oil exceeded $118 per barrel on Thursday, while natural gas prices in Europe jumped 35 percent. There are now worries prices will only soar higher as the war escalates.
Brent crude prices jumped over 10 percent after news broke of Iran’s attacks on Qatar’s energy plants and other strikes on Wednesday, but European natural gas prices jumped even higher.
Qatar’s energy plants are vital for Europe’s natural gas supply, especially after sanctions were placed on Russian natural gas. The Dutch TTF natural gas contract, considered the European benchmark, jumped to €74 before falling back to €62, representing a 35 percent increase. This is still well below the prices that were seen when the war first broke out between Russia and Ukraine in 2022, but Bloomberg business reporter Stephen Stapczynski wrote on X that natural gas prices could still go higher.
Qatar 🇶🇦 pic.twitter.com/YnH3Nb5P7k
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) March 18, 2026“European gas prices surge 30% after Qatar said the world’s largest LNG export plant was damaged in an Iranian attack (Still TTF futures are far from the record highs of 2022). But the longer Qatar LNG remains offline, the higher prices will go,” he wrote.
Zooming out — can see scale of the impact of Ukraine invasion and losing Russian gas
But the longer Qatar LNG remains offline, the higher prices will go pic.twitter.com/dsOnFdmvFb
— Stephen Stapczynski (@SStapczynski) March 19, 2026Overall, Brent crude futures have jumped 50 percent since the war began on Feb. 28, which are tied to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz by Iranian forces, where approximately 20 percent of the world’s energy supplies transit, along with other key sources vital for fertilizer production, manufacturing, and even chipmaking.
After Israel struck the South Pars natural gas field this week, energy markets reacted swiftly to the news yesterday. Iran has responded by expanding strikes on U.S.-linked oil facilities in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar.
Qatar’s Ras Laffan Industrial City, which features the world’s largest liquefied natural gas plant designed for export, was hit with “extensive damage” after Iran hit the facility. Two oil refineries in Kuwait were also set ablaze by drone attacks. Saudi Arabia suffered minimal damage from a strike on its refinery near the Red Sea.
In a Truth Social post, Donald Trump denied that the U.S. was involved in the South Pars attack, saying Israel conducted this attack without the U.S.’s knowledge. However, he said any additional Iranian strikes on Qatar’s LNG facilities would lead the U.S. to “massively blow up the entirety” of the South Pars field, another move that would likely send global energy prices soaring.
A number of commentators usually aligned with Trump, such as Tim Pool, are now lashing out at the president, signaling growing dissent within the right.
This is fucking embarrassing Holy shit https://t.co/Ys2y6M6O66
— Tim Pool (@Timcast) March 19, 2026
