South Pars | Same field, two fates Premium

The escalating Israel-Iran conflict over the South Pars gas field threatens global energy security and impacts India's energy imports.

In a marked escalation of the West Asia conflict, Israel attacked Iran’s South Pars gas field, the world’s largest, shared with Qatar across the Persian Gulf, on March 18. Iran, in retaliation, launched missile attacks on energy facilities in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait and Israel.

The U.S. was quick to distance itself from the attack, with President Donald Trump saying that Israel acted alone and that Tel Aviv would not target the “extremely important and valuable” site again.

Also Read: Iran-Israel war LIVE Updates

The war on Iran had already dealt a massive energy shock to the global economy by choking off exports of crude oil and LNG through the Strait of Hormuz. Brent crude rose 5% to $108.66 a barrel on March 18, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude rose 2.5% to $98.65 a barrel. Natural gas prices also shot up significantly. Beneath the Persian Gulf, straddling the maritime boundary between Iran and Qatar, lies a reservoir so vast it has become central to the energy economies of both countries and much of the world beyond.

Qatar’s North Field and Iran’s South Pars together contain more than 1,800 trillion cubic feet of usable gas, enough, according to a Reuters report, to supply the world’s needs for 13 years. The field is shared by Iran and Qatar, giving both countries the second and third largest natural gas reserves in the world, behind Russia. The field was first discovered in Qatari waters in 1971. South Pars was discovered in 1990. The two countries then embarked on strikingly different journeys with the same resource.

Qatar built Ras Laffan Industrial City, a bustling metropolis 80 km north of Doha, to process the gas from this field. Today, Ras Laffan processes nearly all of the country’s LNG and is responsible for approximately one fifth of the world’s entire LNG supply. The revenues it generated transformed Qatar from a small Gulf emirate into one of the wealthiest countries on earth.