DUBAI/DOHA, March 19 – Iranian attacks have severely affected Qatar's liquefied natural gas (LNG) export capacity, reducing it by 17%. This disruption is expected to result in a loss of about $20 billion in annual income and could impact supplies to Europe and Asia, according to QatarEnergy's CEO, Saad al-Kaabi.
In an interview, Kaabi noted that the attacks damaged two of Qatar's 14 LNG trains and one of its two gas-to-liquids (GTL) facilities. He mentioned that repairs would take three to five years and would temporarily remove 12.8 million tons of LNG per year from the market.
“I never imagined that Qatar, as well as the region, would face such an attack from a neighboring Muslim country during Ramadan,” Kaabi, who also serves as Qatar’s Minister of State for Energy Affairs, stated.
Earlier, Iran had launched a series of attacks on Gulf oil and gas facilities in response to Israeli strikes on its own gas infrastructure.
QatarEnergy will be forced to declare force majeure on its long-term contracts for LNG supplies to Italy, Belgium, South Korea, and China for up to five years because of the damaged trains, Kaabi explained.
“These are long-term contracts, and we have to declare force majeure. We’ve already done so for a shorter duration, but now it extends for an indefinite period,” he added.
Following previous attacks on the Ras Laffan production hub, QatarEnergy has declared force majeure on all of its LNG production after another strike on Wednesday.
“For production to resume, we first need the fighting to stop,” he mentioned.
U.S. company ExxonMobil is a partner in the affected LNG facilities, while Shell is involved with the damaged GTL plant, which is expected to take up to a year to repair.
According to Kaabi, Texas-based ExxonMobil holds a 34% share in LNG train S4 and a 30% share in train S6.