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Tag Archives: Natural Gas

When gas becomes a battlefield: Qatar’s LNG disruption marks a new era of energy warfare

State-owned QatarEnergy halted LNG production after Iranian drone attacks on Ras Laffan and Mesaieed and declared force majeure on shipments to affected buyers. (Moneycontrol)

QatarEnergy’s force majeure declaration crystallises a broader shift in global energy markets toward fragmentation and securitisation. The disruption has intensified market tightness, driven price volatility, and exposed the vulnerability of critical infrastructure to geopolitical conflict QatarEnergy’s March 24 declaration of force majeure on parts of its long-term LNG contracts marks …

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Iran’s War on Gulf State Energy Infrastructure Reverberates Beyond Oil and Gas

A refinery for oil and petrochemicals.Shutterstock

Even Limited Damage Can Force Shutdowns, Suspend Exports, and Trigger Panic Across Energy Markets The Gulf Cooperation Council states—Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates—long have sustained global energy stability. As the conflict with Iran expands, it directly threatens Persian Gulf oil and gas infrastructure and …

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Will Qatar Maintain Its Liquefied Natural Gas Edge After an Iran War?

A liquified natural gas tanker and tugs sail to the terminal.Shutterstock

Doha Converted Gas Revenue Into Global Influence and Marketed Itself as the Supplier That Delivers Even During Turbulence Qatar reads Iran-U.S. tensions through the blunt logic of self-preservation. Doha worries less about “regional instability” than about losing the conditions that let it build an liquefied natural gas empire with limited regional contestation. …

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As China’s Teapot Refiners Turn Toward Iranian Oil, Sanctions’ Effectiveness Suffers

An Iranian banknote with a portrait of Ruhollah Khomeini and a gold model of an oil pump.Shutterstock

Importers Benefit, but Transparency Suffers, and Price Gaps Widen with the Spread of Cheap Sanctioned Oil China’s independent refiners, known as “teapots,” increasingly are replacing Venezuelan crude with Iranian oil. This shift shows how sanctions pressure, commercial reality, and geopolitics now shape global oil flows more than formal rules. As U.S. enforcement …

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Why ‘Maximum Pressure’ Hasn’t Crippled Iran’s Oil Sector

Despite aggressive sanctions expansion since 2018, Iran’s crude production has stabilized in 2026.Shutterstock

Iran’s Sanctions-Evasion Infrastructure Has Become Systematic Rather than Improvised In early February 2025, President Donald Trump issued National Security Presidential Memorandum 2 (NSPM-2), formally reinstating his “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran. The directive sought to deny Tehran any path to nuclear weapons, constrain its ballistic missile program, and dismantle support for regional proxies by …

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