March 19 (UPI) -- Global oil and gas prices surged on Thursday after Israel attacked Iranian sections of the South Pars field, the largest natural gas field in the world, and retaliatory strikes by Tehran on Qatar's state-owned Ras Laffan Industrial City oil-processing facility.
Brent crude, the oil price benchmark, was trading $7.67 a barrel higher in mid-morning trade in London at $115.21, after spiking as high as $119.11 earlier on. The wholesale price of natural gas was up over 20% at $2.15 per Therm.
However, Brent prices remain well below the highs of $128 or $146 per barrel reached after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 and the global financial crisis in 2008. Natural gas reached as much as $7.50 a Therm in 2022.
Israeli government spokesman Alex Gandler told BBC Radio that the South Pars gas field was a legitimate target because it aided the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' ballistic missile capability but the Qatari foreign ministry criticized Israel, calling the strikes "dangerous and irresponsible".
"The Israeli targeting of facilities linked to Iran's South Pars field, an extension of Qatar's North Field, is a dangerous and irresponsible step amid the current military escalation in the region," Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said on X.
