Iran attack wipes out 17% of Qatar’s LNG capacity for up to five years, QatarEnergy CEO says

A file photo of a gas production facility is seen in at Ras Laffan, Qatar. (AP Photos/Maneesh Bakshi, File)

Iranian attacks have knocked out 17 per cent of Qatar’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) export capacity, causing an estimated US$20 billion in lost annual revenue and threatening supplies to Europe and Asia, QatarEnergy’s CEO told Reuters on Thursday.

Saad al-Kaabi said two of Qatar’s 14 LNG trains and one of its two gas-to-liquids (GTL) facilities were damaged in the unprecedented strikes. The repairs will sideline 12.8 million tons per year of LNG for three to five years, he said.

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“I never in my wildest dreams would have thought that Qatar would be - Qatar and the region - in such an attack, especially from a brotherly Muslim country in the month of Ramadan, attacking us in this way,” Kaabi said in an interview.

Hours earlier Iran had aimed a series of attacks at Gulf oil and gas facilities after Israeli attacks on its own gas infrastructure.

State-owned QatarEnergy may have to declare force majeure on long-term contracts for up to five years for LNG supplies bound for Italy, Belgium, South Korea, and China due to the two damaged trains, Kaabi said.

“I mean, these are long-term contracts that we have to declare force majeure. We already declared, but that was a shorter term. Now it’s whatever the period is,” he said.

Exxonmobile impact and byproducts

U.S. oil major ExxonMobil is a partner in the damaged LNG facilities.

The Texas-based firm holds a 34 per cent stake in LNG train S4 and a 30 peer cent stake in train S6, Kaabi said.

The fallout extends well beyond LNG. Qatar’s exports of condensate will drop by around 24 per cent, while liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) will fall 13 per cent. Helium output will fall 14 per cent, and naphtha and sulfur will both drop by six per cent.

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The damaged units cost approximately US$26 billion to build, Kaabi said.

QatarEnergy had declared force majeure on its entire output of LNG after earlier attacks on its Ras Laffan production hub.

“For production to restart, first we need hostilities to cease,” he said.

(Reporting by Maha El Dahan, Andrew Mills and Yousef Saba; Editing by Louise Heavens)