Qatar gas plant blast ‘unlikely to delay LNG recovery’

• Available output restored by October
• Accident killed 13 and injured 66
• 17% production offline due to war

Qatar is on track to restore all of its available liquefied natural gas (LNG) production by October, despite a deadly explosion at a key gas facility on Sunday, according to research group Rystad Energy.

The accident at the Barzan facility killed 13 people and injured 66 others, QatarEnergy said in a statement.

Barzan is part of the sprawling Ras Laffan industrial complex, a key global hub for LNG. Barzan focuses on domestic supplies.

The blast is unlikely to derail Qatar’s recovery from the war with Iran, with a return to full available production expected within months of the Strait of Hormuz reopening in its entirety, according to Christoph Halser, senior analyst, gas and LNG research at Rystad Energy.

“For now, with US-Iran talks ongoing, our base case remains a gradual reopening of Hormuz and a staged recovery in flows over the coming weeks,” Halser said.

“We expect full capacity to be back online towards October, excluding the roughly 17 percent capacity loss linked to earlier damage this year.”

Iranian attacks on Ras Laffan in March caused major disruption. Some 17 percent of Qatar’s LNG capacity is expected to remain offline for up to five years while two facilities are repaired. The loss amounts to about 12.8 million tonnes a year of LNG production from Qatar’s total capacity of 77 million tonnes.

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During the war, oil and gas facilities across the Gulf were hit by Iranian missiles and drones. The repair bill is expected to run into tens of billions of dollars.

The global LNG trade reached about 411 million tonnes in 2024, according to data from the International Gas Union.

In a statement, QatarEnergy said: “QatarEnergy’s LNG facilities, Ras Laffan Port, other logistics operations, and QatarEnergy’s export capabilities remain unaffected as a result of this explosion and fire.”

Halser said it was too early to tell whether there would be any knock-on effects.

“The facility serves the local market, and whether the incident has implications for LNG liquefaction remains unclear at this stage,” he said.

“Given the reported scale of the explosion, further impact on operations or delay to the restart timeline cannot be ruled out, even if direct liquefaction implications remain unconfirmed.”