U.S. President Donald Trump has issued a stark warning to Tehran, threatening to "massively blow up" one of the world’s largest natural gas reserves if Iran continues its strikes against Qatari energy infrastructure.

The escalation follows a series of overnight attacks that have pushed the Persian Gulf to the brink of a full-scale energy war. Israeli forces reportedly struck the South Pars gas field, a massive offshore reservoir shared between Iran and Qatar, leading to immediate Iranian retaliation against Qatar's Ras Laffan energy complex, the world’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant.

Qatari officials confirmed on Thursday that the Ras Laffan complex sustained "extensive damage" following Iranian missile strikes. While the state-run QatarEnergy reported that all fires have now been contained and no injuries were reported, the damage to the critical hub has sent shockwaves through global energy markets.

The attack on Ras Laffan is seen as a direct response to the Israeli operation at South Pars. In a social media posting late Wednesday, President Trump claimed the United States "knew nothing" about the Israeli strike and emphasised that Qatar was also unaware of the operation.

"The United States 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," Trump wrote on Truth Social, warning that any further Iranian aggression toward Qatar would be met with total destruction of the field.

Trump claimed that no further Israeli attacks would be made on the South Pars field, provided Iran ceased its strikes on regional neighbors. 

Brent crude prices surged soared to USD114 per barrel following the news, as traders factored in the growing risk of upstream production halts and a potential total blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most critical energy chokepoint.