CEO Saad al-Kaabi says QatarEnergy could should declare drive majeure on long-term contracts for as much as 5 years.
Printed On 19 Mar 2026
Iranian assaults on Qatar have worn out 17 p.c of its liquefied pure fuel (LNG) export capability, inflicting an estimated $20bn in misplaced annual income and threatening provides to Europe and Asia, QatarEnergy’s CEO says.
Saad al-Kaabi instructed the Reuters information company on Thursday that two of Qatar’s 14 LNG trains, the gear used to liquefy pure fuel, and one among its two gas-to-liquids amenities have been broken in Iranian strikes this week.
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The repairs will sideline 12.8 million tonnes of LNG manufacturing per 12 months for 3 to 5 years, he stated.
“I by no means in my wildest goals would have thought that Qatar could be – Qatar and the area – in such an assault, particularly from a brotherly Muslim nation within the month of Ramadan, attacking us on this means,” al-Kaabi stated in an interview.
His feedback got here hours after Iran on Wednesday launched a collection of assaults on oil and fuel amenities throughout the Gulf area after the Israeli navy bombed its South Pars offshore gasfield.
Tehran has been firing missiles and drones throughout the Center East in response to the United States-Israeli warfare on Iran, which started on February 28.
It additionally has primarily blocked the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial Gulf waterway by means of which about one-fifth of the world’s oil and LNG provides transit, fuelling hovering petrol costs and international considerations about rising inflation.
Iran’s assaults on power infrastructure have heightened tensions with its Arab Gulf neighbours, who’ve condemned the strikes as a violation of worldwide regulation.
Iranian International Minister Abbas Araghchi stated on Thursday that his nation would present “ZERO restraint” if its infrastructure is struck once more because the Israeli assault on the South Pars gasfield continued to spur condemnation.
“Our response to Israel’s assault on our infrastructure employed FRACTION of our energy. The ONLY cause for restraint was respect for requested de-escalation,” Araghchi wrote on X.
“Any finish to this warfare should handle injury to our civilian websites.”
‘Steer clear of oil and fuel amenities’
Throughout Thursday’s interview with Reuters, al-Kaabi stated QatarEnergy could should declare drive majeure on long-term contracts for as much as 5 years for LNG provides certain for Italy, Belgium, South Korea and China as a result of two broken trains.
“I imply, these are long-term contracts that we’ve got to declare drive majeure. We already declared, however that was a shorter time period. Now it’s regardless of the interval is,” he stated.
QatarEnergy had declared drive majeure on its total output of LNG after earlier assaults on its Ras Laffan manufacturing hub, which got here below hearth once more on Wednesday. “For manufacturing to restart, first we’d like hostilities to stop,” al-Kaabi stated.
The broken models value about $26bn to construct, al-Kaabi stated. He additionally instructed Reuters that the dimensions of the injury from the assaults has set the area again 10 to twenty years.
“If Israel attacked Iran, it’s between Iran and Israel. It has nothing to do with us and the area,” he stated.
“And so now, along with that, I’m saying that everyone on the earth, whether or not it’s Israel, whether or not it’s the US, whether or not it’s some other nation, everyone ought to keep away from oil and fuel amenities.”
