European gas prices soared at market opening after Qatar’s 77mn t/yr Ras Laffan liquefaction complex was hit by missile strikes in the early hours of 19 March.
Front-month futures on the Dutch TTF gas hub, Europe’s most liquid gas hub, were trading at €72/MWh at market opening, over 30pc higher than the previous day’s close and the highest since January 2023, before dropping to around €67-68/MWh over the following hour. The Argus-assessed TTF front-month price stood at €54.59/MWh on 18 March.
Crude futures also rose sharply today. The front-month May Ice Brent contact increased by 7pc to a high of $115.10/bl.
Several LNG facilities at the Ras Laffan complex, the world’s largest LNG production facility, were the subject of missile attacks overnight, causing sizeable fires and extensive further damage, operator QatarEnergy said. Production at the facility had already been halted on 2 March after the de-facto closure of the strait of Hormuz left the producer with no location to load its LNG. The facility had also been the target of a drone attack on that day.
An attack on the Ras Laffan complex the day before on 18 March resulted in extensive damage to the Pearl GTL (gas-to-liquids) facility, QatarEnergy said. An unidentified vessel was also struck by an unknown projectile on 19 March around 4 nautical miles (7 kilometres) east of Ras Laffan, the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) reported.
