Qatar blamed Tehran for strikes on its natural gas facilities, a day after Iran’s largest natural gas source was hit. The price of oil climbed to $114 a barrel as uncertainty over the war’s impacts on energy supplies grew.

 

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Updated

March 19, 2026, 3:45 a.m. ET18 minutes ago

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/03/19/world/iran-war-news-trump-oil

 

Iran War Live Updates: Qatar Reports More Attacks on Energy Infrastructure as Oil Prices Rise

Qatar blamed Tehran for strikes on its natural gas facilities, a day after Iran’s largest natural gas source was hit. The price of oil climbed to $114 a barrel as uncertainty over the war’s impacts on energy supplies grew.

 

Updated

March 19, 2026, 3:32 a.m. ET31 minutes ago

Francesca Regalado Ravi Mattu Rebecca Elliott and River Akira Davis

 

Here’s the latest.

Qatar said on Thursday that Iranian attacks against its energy infrastructure were continuing, as the price of oil climbed to $114 a barrel and uncertainty grew over how the widening war in the Middle East would affect energy supplies.

 

Qatar blamed Iran for strikes on its natural gas facilities on Wednesday and Thursday, and expelled two Iranian diplomats. Qatari officials said that initial missile attacks inflicted “extensive damage” on a major coastal energy hub, Ras Laffan Industrial City. QatarEnergy, the state-owned petroleum company, later said that separate attacks had caused fires and “extensive further damage" at its liquefied natural gas facilities.

 

Earlier drone and missile attacks against Qatar and Saudi Arabia followed Iran’s vows to retaliate for an attack on Iran’s South Pars field that Tehran said was carried out by Israel. South Pars, which Iran shares with Qatar, accounts for about 70 to 75 percent of Iranian natural gas production.

 

President Trump said on Wednesday night that Israel had acted alone on the South Pars attack without informing the United States, and that Qatar was not involved. He threatened to destroy the South Pars field if Qatar’s energy facilities were attacked again.

 

After the attacks on Iran and Qatar, the price of Brent crude rose to $114 a barrel, an increase of over 4 percent. Benchmark indexes in Seoul and Tokyo closed down on Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei index down more than 3 percent.. And gasoline prices in Japan hit a record high as Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi arrived in Washington to meet Mr. Trump.

 

A British maritime monitoring agency also said on Thursday that a vessel had been hit by a projectile near Qatar’s Ras Laffan energy hub. It was the second vessel struck overnight near the Persian Gulf, according to the agency, United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations.

 

Around the same time, the authorities in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates said that they were intercepting drones. Emirati officials said incoming missiles and drones were coming from Iran, and that the authorities had responded to incidents at gas facilities and an oil field caused by debris from missile interceptions.

 

In the West Bank, three Palestinians were killed when a missile attack struck a makeshift beauty parlor on Wednesday, the first fatal attack on Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territory since the war began. The Israeli military said the attack was caused by an Iranian missile, but Palestinian officials blamed an errant Israeli aerial defense interceptor.

 

In Washington on Thursday, two intelligence leaders — Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and C.I.A. Director John Ratcliffe — are expected to face questions at a House committee hearing over the Trump administration’s threat assessments leading up to the war.

 

Ms. Gabbard told the Senate Intelligence Committee that even though the Iranian leadership had been “largely degraded” by U.S. and Israeli attacks, the government still “appears to be intact.” She and Mr. Ratcliffe also undermined President Trump’s statements that he went to war because Iran would soon have missiles capable of reaching the United States.

 

Here’s what else we are covering:

 

Iran: Residents in Tehran and elsewhere in Iran said their lives were gripped by fear and anger, describing attacks coming night and day that were growing in intensity, becoming louder and getting closer. In the last few days, Israel has killed more of Iran’s leadership in government and the military. The targeted assassinations, as well as strikes on police stations, are often happening in densely packed residential neighborhoods with high-rise apartment buildings. Read more ›

 

War update: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are scheduled to hold a news conference at 8 a.m. Eastern time on Thursday.

 

Japan: At a meeting in Washington on Thursday, President Trump is expected to ask Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi of Japan for military help in the Strait of Hormuz. But she is constrained by Japan’s pacifist constitution and by overwhelming public opposition to the war.

 

Fiscal strain: Governments throughout Europe and Asia are grappling with how to shield citizens from surging costs if the war is prolonged, but doing so would risk the ire of global debt investors.