By Georgi Kantchev
For its main customers in Europe and Asia, the crippling of Qatar's Ras Laffan gas facility threatens to ignite a full-scale energy crisis. Europe, emerging from a cold winter that has drained its storage inventories, had pivoted heavily to Qatari liquefied natural gas in recent years to replace Russian pipeline gas. Meanwhile, major Asian economies-including Japan, South Korea, India and China-rely heavily on long-term contracts with Qatar for power generation and industrial output. The sudden loss of this massive supply node has already forced European and Asian buyers into a bidding war over the world's remaining uncontracted LNG cargoes, leading to a spike in prices.
Compounding the alarm for global markets is the stark lack of a strategic safety net to absorb a disruption of this magnitude. Unlike oil, the world doesn't maintain significant strategic LNG reserves that can be quickly tapped to offset such a sudden supply shock.
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 19, 2026 04:00 ET (08:00 GMT)
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