Asia is the biggest market for liquefied natural gas. Asia is also the destination of up to 90% of Qatari and Emirati LNG—or was, until this month. With the shutdown of Qatar’s Ras Laffan LNG complex and the Strait of Hormuz traffic disruption, Asia is facing a lot of energy supply pain.
QatarEnergy announced a complete halt to LNG production after Iranian drone strikes hit facilities at Ras Laffan Industrial City and Mesaieed Industrial City on March 2. A force majeure declaration followed on QatarEnergy exports. The move started a chain reaction that saw commodity traders sourcing LNG from the Gulf state also declaring force majeure on deliveries to clients—a lot of them in Asia.
As usually happens when a shortage emerges in a market, buyers sought alternatives, which resulted in LNG cargos originating from the U.S. Gulf Coast and headed for Europe getting diverted to Asia. Bloomberg reported this week that at least nine U.S. LNG cargoes have been diverted so far, but there will probably be more. Asian gas prices are more enticing for U.S. LNG producers until the European market catches up, meaning the price of gas rises enough to motivate selling more liquefied gas to the Europeans.
Meanwhile, Asian LNG importers are scrambling to secure supplies in anticipation of a prolonged disruption in the Middle East. A few months of no Qatari LNG is now a realistic scenario, especially after Qatar’s energy minister confirmed it would take a while to restart operations at Ras Laffan. According to Saad al-Kaabi, the return to normal operations could take “weeks to months”, even if the war ended now. According to analysts, as reported by Energy Intelligence, the disruption would last a minimum of between four and six weeks. In other words, Asian LNG importers are doing well in preparing. The question, however, is whether there is enough LNG to go around.
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In 2025, Qatar exported 81 million tons of liquefied natural gas. The UAE exported another 5 million tons. The overwhelming bulk of those volumes—90%—went to Asia. This is quite a massive exposure to just two suppliers but the economics justify it, and few could have predicted the scale of energy commodity market disruption from the latest Middle East war.
Asian buyers are therefore looking for LNG cargoes for delivery in April and even May, Bl