DOHA: Qatar’s prime minister said on Thursday Iran’s attack on the world’s largest gas facility in Qatar was “clear proof” against Tehran’s claims of having targeted only US interests in the Gulf.
There were “persistent Iranian claims that these attacks are against American interests… and this claim is rejected and cannot be accepted,” Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said.
“The clear proof of this is the attack that took place yesterday that targeted a natural gas facility in the State of Qatar,” he added.
Iranian missiles hit Ras Laffan Industrial City on Wednesday evening causing extensive damage and sparking a surge in global energy prices.
The facility, which processes about a fifth of the world’s liquefied natural gas, had already halted production due to earlier attacks.
QatarEnergy’s CEO Saad Al-Kaabi told Reuters that the attacks have knocked out 17 percent of Qatar’s LNG export capacity, causing an estimated $20 billion in lost annual revenue and threatening supplies to Europe and Asia.
He said two of Qatar’s 14 LNG trains and one of its two gas-to-liquids (GTL) facilities were damaged in the strikes. The repairs will sideline 12.8 million tons per year of LNG for three to five years, he said.
“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,” Al-Kaabi said.
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.
The fallout extends well beyond LNG. Qatar’s exports of condensate will drop by around 24 percent, while liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) will fall 13 percent. Helium output will fall 14 percent, and naphtha and sulphur will both drop by 6 percent.
The damaged units cost approximately $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.
The scale of the damage led to a spike on energy markets with international benchmark Brent surging 10 percent to $119 a barrel before falling back to $112, while European gas prices rose 35 percent.
The attack came as Iran lashed out at energy infrastructure in Arab Gulf countries after an Israeli strike hit Iran’s Pars gas field early on Wednesday.
A refinery in the Saudi port Yanbu was hit by a drone on Thursday, the defense ministry said, while drone strikes also caused a fire at a Kuwaiti refinery.
Qatar was among the Arab and Islamic states that issued a unified call after a meeting in Saudi Arabia for Tehran to halt its aggression.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on social media Thursday there would be “zero restraint” if Iran’s infrastructure was hit again.
*With AFP and Reuters
ARAB News
