Iranian attacks have wiped out 17% of Qatar’s LNG export capacity, leading to a loss of about $20 billion annual revenue and threatening supplies to Europe and Asia, QatarEnergy’s CEO said on Thursday.
Reuters quoted Saad al-Kaabi saying that two of Qatar’s 14 LNG trains and one of its two gas-to-liquids (GTL) facilities were damaged in the unprecedented strikes.
He further said that the repairs will sideline 12.8 million tons per year of LNG for three to five years.
Check Latest Updates On Iran-Israel War Status Today
“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.
AFP quoted Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani condemning Iran’s attacks on the state’s main gas hub.
“This attack has significant repercussions for global energy supplies. Such attacks bring no direct benefit to any country, rather, they harm and directly impact populations,” he told a press conference following extensive damage to the Ras Laffan facility.
This comes after Iran expanded its retaliatory campaign against energy infrastructure across the Gulf.
According to a report by Reuters, the SAMREF refinery, operated as a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and ExxonMobil, was hit in an aerial strike following similar attacks on facilities in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
Also Read: After Qatar, UAE, Iran Targets Saudi Arabia’s Oil Giant In Aerial Strike As West Asia War Rages
An industry source said the impact on the refinery was limited, though reports indicated a fire had broken out at the site.
The strike came after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps issued evacuation warnings for several oil and gas installations across Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE, including the Yanbu facility.
Tehran’s actions are widely seen as retaliation for US-Israeli strikes on Iran’s energy assets, including the South Pars gas field.
The latest attack heightened concerns over global energy supplies, as Yanbu has emerged as one of the two critical export routes for Gulf crude after Iran effectively shut the Strait of Hormuz following the outbreak of hostilities late last month.
The strait typically carries about one-fifth of the world’s oil shipments.
