Europe and Japan ready to help stabilise energy prices and secure oil chokepoint

[DOHA/RIYADH] Leading nations in Europe, with Japan, said on Thursday (Mar 19) that they would act to stabilise energy markets and join “appropriate efforts” to open the Gulf’s oil chokepoint after tit-for-tat strikes on energy plants dramatically escalated the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Major economies have been scrambling to cushion the impact of soaring oil prices after state oil giant QatarEnergy reported “extensive damage” from Iranian missile strikes on the Ras Laffan Industrial City in response to Israel’s bombing of Iran’s major gas field.

Ras Laffan processes about a fifth of the world’s liquefied natural gas (LNG). Saudi Arabia’s main port on the Red Sea, where it has been able to divert some exports to avoid Iran’s closure of the Gulf’s Strait of Hormuz, was also attacked.

The seemingly precise strikes underscored Iran’s continued ability to exact a heavy price for the US-Israeli campaign, and the limits of air defences in protecting one of the Gulf region’s most valuable and strategic energy assets.

They also suggested a lack of coordination of strategy and war aims almost three weeks into the war. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, however, told a briefing that US objectives in the war were “unchanged, on target and on plan”.

The leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Japan issued a joint statement urging “an immediate comprehensive moratorium on attacks on civilian infrastructure, including oil and gas installations”.

“We express our readiness to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the strait,” they added. “We will take other steps to stabilise energy markets, including working with certain producing nations to increase output.”

Rates, energy prices worry Europe

The European Central Bank (ECB) and Bank of England (BOE) held rates steady, citing inflation risks.

The ECB now sees 2026 inflation at 2.6 per cent in a “baseline” scenario, above the 1.9 per cent predicted in December 2025. Investors who once expected cuts were pricing in hikes by year-end.

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At a summit in Brussels, European Union leaders were set to try to offset the jump in energy costs, with few easy options available.

European gas prices rose 25 per cent, and Brent crude oil futures were up nearly 6 per cent at US$113 at 1300 GMT, after briefly surging about 10 per cent.

European gas prices have leapt by over 60 per cent since the war began on Feb 28.

Japanese and South Korean stocks fell around 3 per cent, while the pan-European index was down 2.5 per cent, around its lowest in more than three months. Wall Street was set to open lower.

Iranian aerial attacks since Wednesday have forced the United Arab Emirates to shut its Habshan gas facility and set off fires at Kuwait’s Mina Al Ahmadi and Abdullah Port oil refineries.

Perhaps just as significantly, Saudi Arabia intercepted a ballistic missile launched towards Yanbu, the port city that is the kingdom’s only outlet for crude exports since Iran in effect closed the Strait of Hormuz, through which around a fifth of the world’s crude oil and LNG normally passes.

A drone also fell on the Aramco-Exxon refinery, SAMREF, in Yanbu, the Saudi defence ministry said, though an industry source said the impact was minimal.

Iran’s armed forces command said strikes on Iran’s energy infrastructure had led to “a new stage in the war” in which it had attacked energy facilities linked to the US.

“If strikes (on Iran’s energy facilities) happen again, further attacks on your energy infrastructure and that of your allies will not stop until it is completely destroyed,” spokesman Ebrahim Zolfaqari said, according to state media.

Hegseth told reporters that the US objectives remained to destroy Iran’s missile launchers, as well as its defence industrial base and navy, and never to allow it to acquire a nuclear weapon.

Israel acted alone in attacking gas field: Trump

Trump said the US had had no advance knowledge of Israel’s attack on Iran’s gas field and that Qatar – a close partner of Washington and host to the Gulf’s biggest US airbase – had not been involved.

“Israel, out of anger for what has taken place in the Middle East, has violently lashed out at a major facility known as South Pars gas field in Iran,” Trump posted on X.

“Unfortunately, Iran did not know this, or any of the pertinent facts pertaining to the South Pars attack, and unjustifiably and unfairly attacked a portion of Qatar’s LNG gas facility.”

The Wall Street Journal, however, reported that Trump had supported Israel’s plan to attack South Pars, and Israeli media reported widely on Wednesday that it had been carried out with Trump’s consent and in coordination with Washington.

A source briefed on the Israeli campaign said Trump’s remarks were surprising given that Israel was closely coordinating its campaign with the US

Israel has been hoping that sustained military pressure on Iran, including the assassinations of senior figures, would weaken the government enough to trigger a popular uprising.

However, Israeli officials have publicly acknowledged that such an outcome is far from certain, and there has been little sign that the Teheran government is losing its grip.

In his post, Trump said that if Iran attacked Qatar again, “the US of America, with or without the help or consent of Israel, will massively blow up the entirety of the South Pars gas field at an amount of strength and power that Iran has never seen or witnessed before”.

South Pars is the Iranian sector of the world’s largest natural gas deposit, shared with Qatar.

Since the start of the conflict, Teheran has targeted not only Israel, but also US diplomatic and military facilities across the Gulf, while warning neighbouring states against hosting attacks on Iran.

Trump considering more troops: sources

A US official and three other people familiar with the planning told Reuters that Trump, politically vulnerable to rising fuel prices among his core voters, was considering sending thousands more US troops to the Middle East.

Those troops could be used to restore the safe passage of oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran has been selectively attacking vessels.

Trump this week asked US allies to help reopen the strait, but his request has so far been rebuffed.

More than 3,000 people have been killed in Iran since the US-Israeli attacks began, the US-based Iran human rights group HRANA estimates, with millions forced to leave their homes.

Authorities in Lebanon say 900 have been killed there and 800,000 displaced. Iranian attacks have killed people in Iraq and across the Gulf states, and at least 13 US service members have died. REUTERS