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A blast at the Ras Laffan gas complex has killed 13 workers and injured 66 more, Qatari officials say. 12 of the deceased were Indian nationals, plus one Pakistani citizen.
The giant Ras Laffan Industrial City area is a vast complex for processing natural gas from Qatar's offshore wells, and it incorporates multiple elements, including power stations, desalination plants, gas-to-liquid plants, and the world's largest collection of liquefaction trains for producing LNG. The LNG complex was shut down during the U.S.-Iranian hostilities, and about 17 percent of its capacity was knocked out by an Iranian ballistic missile strike. Operator QatarGas has pledged to bring the liquefaction trains back online on a rapid timetable; Wood Mac estimates that it will take about 12 weeks to restore most production.
Natural gas underpins the Qatari economy, and the loss of LNG exports has had an impact. Its GDP is on track to sink by about nine percent this year due to the shutdown and the broader effects of the conflict.
The blast on Sunday occurred during restart operations at the Barzan gas processing facility, which is used to fulfill Qatar's own domestic energy requirements. It had a technical root cause, Qatari authorities reported, and was not an attack; it posed no threat to the broader public, but it startled residents as far as 45 miles away in the capital of Doha.
Qatari state energy minister Saad al-Kaabi said Monday that it would not be a setback for efforts to relaunch full rate LNG output, nor is it expected to impact local gas supplies.
Fuente: MARITIME_EXECUTIVE
