Qatar’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) export capacity has been reduced by around 17 per cent following missile attacks by Iran on the Ras Laffan Industrial City, with potential annual revenue losses estimated at $20 billion, QatarEnergy said on Thursday.
The attacks, which took place on March 18 and in the early hours of March 19, caused extensive damage to critical production infrastructure, including LNG Trains 4 and 6, with a combined capacity of 12.8 million tonnes per annum (MTPA).
Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, Minister of State for Energy Affairs and President and CEO of QatarEnergy, said the damage could take between three to five years to repair, significantly impacting supply to key markets across Europe and Asia.
“The damage sustained by the LNG facilities will take between three to five years to repair… This means that we will be compelled to declare force majeure for up to five years on some long-term LNG contracts,” Al-Kaabi said.
The disruption is expected to affect major importing countries including China, South Korea, Italy and Belgium, tightening global gas markets already under pressure from geopolitical instability.
The missile strikes also hit the Pearl Gas-to-Liquids (GTL) facility, operated by Shell, with one of its two production trains expected to remain offline for at least one year. The plant plays a critical role in converting natural gas into cleaner fuels, base oils, and petrochemical feedstocks.
Beyond LNG, the outage is expected to disrupt associated product supplies. QatarEnergy estimates losses of 18.6 million barrels of condensates (around 24 per cent of exports), 1.28 million tonnes of LPG (13 per cent), 0.59 million tonnes of naphtha (6 per cent), 0.18 million tonnes of sulphur (6 per cent), and 309.54 MCFA of helium (14 per cent).
Al-Kaabi described the attacks as a direct threat to global energy stability.
“These weren’t just an attack on the State of Qatar but attacks on global energy security and stability… sustained by a fair, reliable, and secure access to energy,” he said.
Despite the scale of the damage, QatarEnergy confirmed that no injuries were reported, crediting emergency response teams and security forces for containing the situation swiftly.
