Iran strikes major Qatari plant, sending oil prices surging above $110

• Oil and gas prices surged Thursday after Iran made a retaliatory strike against a Qatari LNG site.
• Crude prices soared toward $120 a barrel, and European natural gas futures spiked as much as 35%.
• US stocks dropped, extending losses after the Dow hit a 2026 low in Wednesday's session.

Oil and natural gas prices surged on Thursday after Iran responded to an Israeli strike by attacking a major liquefied natural gas complex in Qatar, stoking fears of further supply disruptions.

Brent crude, the international benchmark, surged as much as 11% to over $119 a barrel before falling to about $112. West Texas Intermediate crude rose nearly 4% to north of $99 a barrel before dipping back to $96.

European natural gas futures spiked around 18% to nearly 65 euros per megawatt-hour, after leaping as much as 35% earlier in the session. US natural gas futures were 4% higher at just shy of $3.20, after gaining more than 6% in early trading.

The latest energy-market turmoil sent US stocks tumbling, extending losses a day after the Dow hit its lowest level of the year.

Here's where major indexes stood at the 9:30 a.m. ET opening bell:

S&P 500: 6,571.71, down 0.8%

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 45,818.14, down 0.9% (-407.01 points)

Nasdaq Composite: 21,892.351, down 1.17%

On Wednesday, Israel struck Iran's South Pars gas field, an offshore facility that Iran shares with Qatar. It's the largest such facility in the world. Shortly after, Iran struck Ras Laffan Industrial City — home to the world's largest LNG export plant, which accounts for nearly one-fifth of global LNG trade.

The move followed prior warnings from Tehran about potential strikes on Gulf energy infrastructure, rattling markets already sensitive to geopolitical risk and raising concerns about further volatility in global energy supplies.

QatarEnergy said the strikes caused "extensive damage" to its facilities.

Early on Thursday, Qatar's Interior Ministry wrote on X that the country's civil defense force had contained all the fires in the Ras Laffan Industrial Area. There were no reported injuries.

Saudi Arabia's defense ministry said on Thursday that a drone had crashed in the Samref refinery and that damages are being assessed.

Trump says the US didn't know about the attack

The Foreign Ministry of Qatar said in a statement that the strike marked "a dangerous escalation, a flagrant violation of state sovereignty, and a direct threat to its national security and regional stability."

On Wednesday night, President Donald Trump said on Truth Social that the US "knew nothing about this particular attack" on Iran's South Pars Gas Field. He said that barring a strike by Iran, Israel would not attack the South Pars gas field. But should Iran attack Qatar again, the US would "massively blow up the entirety of the South Pars Gas Field."

Crude futures pared some gains after Trump's comments but remained elevated as traders priced in fresh risks amid the escalation of events. Brent crude, the international benchmark, is more exposed to risks from the Persian Gulf, including the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

"Damage to the LNG facilities means that the troubles for global gas markets aren't just about when flows through the Strait of Hormuz resume, but how long repair work at the sites might take," wrote ING's strategists.

Even if the LNG facilities are largely untouched, the market will have to price in a higher risk premium because of the growing threat to Middle East energy infrastructure, the ING analysts added.

The Iranian strikes on QatarEnergy's facilities came more than two weeks after the state energy firm halted LNG production after Iranian drone attacks damaged one of its plants.

The strikes on Wednesday are likely to delay the return of Qatari LNG supplies to global markets, Energy Vista founder Leslie Palti-Guzman told Bloomberg TV. She added that it could take months for production to fully resume.

The latest developments in the conflict suggest it has entered a new phase, wrote Vishnu Varathan, Mizuho's head of macro research for Asia, excluding Japan.

Risks are shifting "from temporary disruptions to more lasting capacity destruction impairing the production and passage of oil and gas," Varathan wrote in a Thursday note.

That could keep oil and gas prices higher for longer as expectations of a ceasefire fade, he added.

Aditya Saraswat, a senior VP at Rystad Energy, said in an email that further strikes could push oil beyond $120 per barrel.

"Oil markets, already at $110 per barrel, would likely breach $120 in the immediate aftermath, with further upside depending on the severity of the damage sustained," he wrote.

Oil prices are sharply higher this year amid geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, with Brent up over 80% and WTI up about 70%.