QatarEnergy CEO Saad al-Kaabi said on Thursday that Iranian attacks have disabled 17% of Qatar’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) export capacity, resulting in an estimated $20 billion in annual revenue losses and raising concerns over energy supplies to Europe and Asia.
Speaking to Reuters, Kaabi said the strikes damaged two of the country’s 14 LNG production trains, as well as one of its two gas-to-liquids (GTL) facilities, in what he described as unprecedented attacks.
He added that the impact of the damage is expected to sideline approximately 12.8 million tonnes of LNG production per year for a period of three to five years while repairs are carried out.
“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,” Reuters quoted Kaabi as saying 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.
Kaabi said 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.
“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 was quoted as saying.
ExxonMobil impact and byproducts
According to Kaabi, US oil major ExxonMobil is among the partners in the damaged LNG facilities.
Kaabi said the Texas-based company holds a 34% stake in LNG train S4 and a 30% stake in train S6, both of which were affected by the attacks.
The impact extends beyond LNG production. Qatar’s condensate exports are expected to decline by about 24%, while liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) output will fall by 13%. Helium production is projected to drop 14%, with both naphtha and sulphur output decreasing by 6%.
Kaabi added that the damaged units had cost roughly $26 billion to build.
Following earlier strikes on its Ras Laffan production hub, QatarEnergy declared force majeure on its entire LNG output.
“For production to restart, first we need hostilities to cease,” he was quoted as saying.
With inputs from agencies 
