India raised the alarm over Iranian attacks on energy facilities in the Gulf on Thursday, saying they would worsen global energy flows and strain its own gas supplies, which it is now racing to secure.
“Recent attacks against energy installations in different locations across this region are… deeply disturbing and only serve to further destabilise an already uncertain energy scenario for the whole world,” India’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
India’s statement came after Iran hit the world’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility in Qatar on Thursday. Iran said the strikes were in retaliation for an Israeli attack on its South Pars gas field.
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The strikes were “unacceptable and need to cease”, New Delhi said, reiterating its call to avoid targeting energy infrastructure. India relies on Qatar for over 40% of its LNG supplies that are crucial for power generation, industry, fertiliser production and household cooking.
With gas shipments already reduced, New Delhi fears a fresh supply crunch as well as rising costs and deeper economic strains across sectors dependent on steady imports.
Qatar is one of the world’s top LNG producers, alongside the United States, Australia and Russia.
Energy prices have already spiralled globally since tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which normally carries around a fifth of the world’s oil and LNG, was brought to a near-standstill by the threat of Iranian attacks.
As many as 22 Indian ships with over 600 crew are stuck in the Gulf as this key energy corridor remains disrupted.
Indian foreign ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal said the country’s energy supplies had already been impacted by the closure of the strait.
“Now with the latest attacks our LNG supply is going to be impacted,” he told reporters during a news briefing in New Delhi on Thursday.
“We are in touch with all the stakeholders there to see how best we can secure our energy needs and there can be unimpeded transit for our cargo.”
‘Energy war’ feared
The assault on Qatar’s Ras Laffan facility — the largest in the world — has stoked wider fears around disruptions to fuel.
Experts say they raise the spectre of the conflict morphing into an energy war, where damage to and the destruction of infrastructure leads to a longer supply crisis that would be much more damaging to the global economy.
State-run QatarEnergy said two waves of Iranian strikes had caused “sizeable fires and extensive further damage” to several LNG facilities. Strikes also hit Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea refinery — located at the end of a pipeline that bypasses the Strait of Hormuz — and two Kuwaiti oil refineries.
“The war has now clearly entered a phase where energy infrastructure is being directly targeted,” Arne Lohmann Rasmussen, chief analyst at Global Risk Management told AFP.
“This marks a new escalation and points to further upside pressure on energy prices in the coming days,” he added.
John Plassard, head of investment strategy at Cité Gestion Private Bank, said the attacks evoke a “shift towards total energy war”.
Uncertain return to normalcy
Thursday’s attacks were quickly felt on global energy markets. Brent crude shot up more than 10 percent at one point to over $119 a barrel, before pairing gains.
“Market expectations had been for a short disruption, with a controlled restart restoring supply to pre-conflict levels by mid-2026,” said Kristy Kramer, Head of LNG Strategy and Market Development at research firm Wood Mackenzie.
“That outlook now appears increasingly unlikely,” she added.
Analysts also noted that markets were hoping for Qatari LNG volumes to return to pre-war levels later this year. But that idea “is rapidly becoming a fantasy,” Seb Kennedy, LNG analyst at Energy Flux told AFP.
Analysts at Rystad Energy noted, meanwhile, that Iran’s attacks have targeted sites that account for 20 percent of global seaborne LNG trade.
“A successful strike would not only disrupt condensate refining but threaten the operational continuity of LNG trains supplying Europe, Japan, South Korea and China under long-term contracts,” they warned.
“The breadth of what is at risk here in fuels, chemicals, LNG and fertilizer inputs is what makes this moment qualitatively different from previous episodes of Gulf tension,” they added.
AFP, with additional editing by Vishakha Saxena
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