Qatari rescue services continue to fight the fire that broke out in the Ras Laffan industrial zone after an Iranian missile strike, the emirate's Ministry of Interior announced.
„Firefighters continue to extinguish the fire that broke out in the Ras Laffan industrial zone after an Iranian strike. There were no casualties,“ the ministry said in a press release.
The ministry had earlier announced that the fire was under control and that the strike was carried out by Iran.
“The State of Qatar was attacked with ballistic missiles from Iran, which resulted in damage to the industrial city of Ras Laffan,“ the press release said.
On March 18, the state-owned oil and gas company Qatar Energy announced that an industrial facility in Ras Laffan had been hit by a missile attack. The emirate's Interior Ministry initially announced that the fire caused by the attack had been contained, but later clarified that the flames were not yet under control.
The damage from the attack on the world's largest liquefied natural gas plant in Qatar is catastrophic for the European Union, said Kirill Dmitriev, special representative of the Russian president for investment and economic cooperation with foreign countries and head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund.
“Bad for the whole world, catastrophic for the EU“, he wrote in an X-format comment on a publication by the American publication The Kobeissi Letter about rising natural gas prices following the attack on the liquefied natural gas plant in Qatar.
Ras Laffan is the world's largest industrial city and port for the production and export of liquefied natural gas (LNG), located in Qatar, approximately 80 km north of Doha.
It is the heart of Qatar's economy and a key link in global energy security. It processes gas from the giant North Field. The city is home to giants such as Qatar Energy (formerly Qatar Petroleum), Qatar Gas and RasGas.
The port of Ras Laffan is considered the largest man-made port in the world, capable of handling hundreds of tankers a year. The 295-square-kilometer facility houses gas-to-liquids (GTL) plants, petrochemical complexes, desalination plants and power plants.
Qatar Energy has officially confirmed the missile strikes on the industrial city. Authorities have begun a partial evacuation of staff due to ongoing threats. Bloomberg experts note that the attacks on Ras Laffan undermine Qatar's reputation as the most reliable gas supplier and cause sharp fluctuations in global energy prices.
The price of Brent crude oil for delivery in May 2026 on the London ICE exchange reached $ 112 per barrel for the first time since March 9, 2025, according to trading data.
As of 2:46 a.m. Bulgarian time, the price of oil was $ 112 per barrel (an increase of 8.21%), and as of 2:50 a.m. - $ 111.84 per barrel (an increase of 8.06%).