Iranian missile strikes on Qatar's Ras Laffan complex have triggered an energy market meltdown, with gas prices in Europe jumping 30% and oil surging 10% to $119 a barrel. The attack on the world's largest LNG facility, which normally supplies a fifth of global liquefied natural gas, has left traders scrambling to assess the damage and calculate the impact of months without Qatari gas flowing to world markets.

Ras Laffan, a sprawling industrial site three times the size of Paris, hosts 14 liquefaction units capable of producing 77 million tonnes of LNG annually - enough to meet Japan's entire gas demand. State-owned QatarEnergy confirmed "extensive damage" to Shell's $18 billion Pearl GTL plant and multiple LNG facilities. Production had already been halted as a precaution last week, but traders had assumed normal flows would resume once Middle East tensions eased.

The strikes have shattered hopes of a quick return to normality, with analysts warning that full capacity could take years to restore depending on damage extent. The loss of Qatari supply, roughly equivalent to Europe's lost Russian pipeline imports, has pitched European buyers into direct competition with Asian nations like Japan and South Korea for limited LNG cargoes.