Authors: Maha El Dahan, Andrew Mills and Yusuf Saba
DUBAI, March 20 (Reuters) – Qatar’s boss, who is also the country’s energy minister, said he had warned officials and executives of the same dangers if Iran’s own plants were attacked, as Qatar’s giant gas company reels from an attack by Iran.
“I have been warning, talking to executives of the oil and gas companies that we work with, talking to the U.S. energy secretary to warn him of the consequences of this, which could be detrimental to us,” Qatar Energy Chief Executive Saad Al Kaabi told Reuters.
Qatar Energy’s partners include major U.S. energy companies such as Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips.
‘Aware of the threat’
“They are aware of the threat and I remind them almost every day that we need to make sure there are restrictions on oil and gas facilities,” he said.
The U.S. Department of Energy has listened to the White House on the matter.
Asked for comment, White House spokesman Tyler Rogers said: “President Trump and his entire energy team are not ignorant of the reality that there will be short-term disruptions to oil and natural gas supplies during Iran’s ongoing operations and have planned for these much-anticipated temporary disruptions.”
ExxonMobil declined to comment.
“We remain fully committed to our long-term partnership and will continue to work with Qatar Energy on the road to recovery,” a ConocoPhillips spokesperson said.
The U.S.-Israeli war with Iran has been raging for three weeks, with missile and drone attacks damaging tankers, refineries and other critical energy infrastructure, with the biggest known impact so far on Qatar Energy’s Ras Laffan project, the world’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) complex.
Kabi told Reuters on Thursday that damage to the $26 billion facility would affect liquefied natural gas shipments to Europe and Asia for up to five years.
Governments have long been concerned about long-term damage to facilities critical not only to global supplies of crude oil and natural gas, but also to the supply of products such as jet fuel and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) used for heating and cooking.
without prior warning
The war escalated sharply on Wednesday when Israel attacked Iran’s main South Pars gas field. Tehran responded with a series of attacks on Gulf energy infrastructure in Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Ras Laffan, Qatar.
Kirby said he received no prior warning about the attack in South Pars.
“I don’t know anything, but I don’t think anyone knows. President Trump says he doesn’t know. So do you think we’ll know?”
South Pars is part of the world’s largest gas field shared by Iran and Qatar, named the North Gas Field.
Kaabi said Qatar Energy had not yet assessed whether insurance would cover its war-related losses.
Damage details
He said that the attack on Ras Laffan port not only paralyzed 17% of Qatar’s LNG export capacity, but also that the impact will last up to five years due to the damage.
“The cold boxes are missing,” Kabi said, referring to damage to cooling units on two of the complex’s 14 trains, which are responsible for purifying and cooling gases so they can be transported in liquid form.
“This was the main unit, the cooling tank for the LNG, and it was completely destroyed.”
Major expansion now postponed
Kaabi said facilities at the Ras Laffan plant had been evacuated following the Iranian attack earlier this month and expansion would be delayed, affecting gas deliveries to countries including France, Germany and China from 2027.
“It’s not easy to evacuate everyone from the sea, you know, 10,000 people were evacuated in 24 hours and all businesses were shut down,” he said.
“I’m glad we achieved zero injuries, zero fatalities. It’s because we made this decision.”
The expansion is aimed at boosting Doha’s position as the world’s largest exporter of LNG, increasing Qatar’s liquefaction capacity from 77 million tonnes per year to 126 million tonnes by 2027.
“The North Field expansion is not happening. There are no workers there. It’s definitely been delayed,” Carby said.
“I think that’s going to be delayed for a few months, maybe a year or more.”
Kaabi said Qatar Energy’s production can only be restarted after hostilities end, and even then it will take at least three to four months to fully resume loading.
Wider Gulf Economic Impact
Kaabi, who is also chairman of Qatar Airways, said the wider impact of the war would be felt across all Gulf economies.
“This sets the entire region back 10-20 years.”
“Tourism has withdrawn. Your airlines are no longer flying…your trade is down. There is no movement of any cargo in any port.”
“There are economies that have zero oil and gas revenue and we are primarily an oil and gas economy. It’s clear that government spending is going to be much lower.”
“Indescribable”
Kaabi spent his career at Qatar Energy, joining the state-owned company in the mid-1980s while studying at Pennsylvania State University.
Known for keeping his cool in challenging situations, he was promoted to CEO of what was then Qatar Petroleum in 2014.
Kirby was speechless when asked how he felt about the attacks on his company and country.
“It’s hard to describe how I feel,” he said, before pausing and turning to the next question.
(Reporting by Maha El Dahan, Andrew Mills and Yousef Saba; Additional reporting by Sheila Dang, Timothy Gardener, Jarret Renshaw and Stephanie Kelly; Editing by Jason Neely)
