What to know about Ras Laffan Industrial City— How Iran's missile attack on key LNG hub may cripple India

Iran intensified its attacks on Gulf countries on Thursday amid its conflict with the US as Tehran launched a missile strike early on the day on Qatar’s key energy infrastructure, sending shockwaves around the world.

On early Thursday morning, Iran caught the world by shock, rattling already-suffering global energy markets, as it launched a missile attack on Ras Laffan, a key Qatari complex housing the world’s largest liquefied natural gas export plant.

Qatar Energy confirmed the attack on Ras Laffan Industrial City, an area that is home to to the world’s biggest LNG facilities and the Pearl Gas-to-Liquids (GTL) plant.

“In addition to the previous attack on Ras Laffan Industrial City on Wednesday, 18 March 2026, which caused extensive damage to the Pearl GTL facility, QatarEnergy confirms that in the early hours of Thursday, 19 March 2026, several LNG facilities were also targeted,” the country's largest energy company said in a post on X.

Qatar strongly condemned the attack, saying that it was “a blatant violation of international law and a serious threat to global energy security, navigation, and the environment.”

Iran's attack on Ras Laffan Industrial City is likely to make the global energy issue worse amid the US-Iran conflict, which has already shaken the industry to the core.

The area was hit by four Iranian missiles before a fifth one made a successful strike and caused extensive damage.

A subsequent attack on Ras Laffan early on Thursday led to a fire, which Qatari authorities said they were dealing with. QatarEnergy said in a statement that several of its LNG facilities were hit, causing sizable fires and extensive further damage.

The Qatari industrial hub is Qatar's main site for production of liquefied natural gas and gas-to-liquid. It houses key facilities including ORYX GTL and Pearl GTL plants, QatarEnergy LNG plants, and the Dolphin gas processing plant, the Laffan Refinery, and Ras Laffan A, B, and C integrated water and power plants.

Ras Laffan Industrial City is located 80 kilometres north of Doha and is managed by state-owned Qatar Energy. The Ras Laffan post, which has an enclosed water area of approximately 4,500 hectares is the largest artificial harbour in the world and houses the largest LNG export facility of the world.

Ras Laffan Industrial City covers 295 square kilometers in area (114 square miles), about one-third the size of New York City.

Other than LNG processing, the industrial hub also hosts more gas-related facilities, including a gas-to-liquids plant, LNG storage, and condensate splitters, as well as an oil refinery.

India imports about 40% of its LNG from Qatar data from market intelligence firm S&P Global showed. An iminent supply shock could result in power cuts and industrial gas supply reduction, according to Kpler.