Iran attacks cut 17% of Qatar’s LNG capacity for up to 5 years: QatarEnergy

CEO Saad al-Kaabi says QatarEnergy may have to declare force majeure on long-term contracts for up to five years.Iranian ⁠attacks on Qatar have wiped out ⁠17 percent of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) export capacity, causing an estimated $20bn in lost annual revenue and threatening supplies to Europe and ⁠Asia, QatarEnergy’s CEO says.Saad al-Kaabi told the Reuters news agency on Thursday that two of Qatar’s 14 LNG trains, the equipment used to liquefy natural gas, and one of its two gas-to-liquids facilities were damaged in Iranian strikes this week.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Why are Iran’s South Pars gasfield, Qatar’s Ras Laffan, so significant?list 2 of 3Conflict shifts to ‘energy war’ as Iran targets Gulf oil and gaslist 3 of 3Could Iran war trigger the next global food shock?end of listThe repairs will sideline 12.8 million tonnes of LNG production per year 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 in an interview.His comments came hours after Iran on Wednesday launched a series of attacks on oil and gas facilities across the Gulf region after the Israeli military bombed its South Pars offshore gasfield.Tehran has been firing missiles and drones across the Middle East in response to the United States-Israeli war on Iran, which began on February 28.It also has essentially blocked the Strait of Hormuz, a critical Gulf waterway through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil and LNG supplies transit, fuelling soaring petrol prices and global concerns about rising inflation.Iran’s attacks on energy infrastructure have heightened tensions with its Arab Gulf neighbours, who have condemned the strikes as a violation of international law.