Qatar Targets Full LNG Production Recovery Within Weeks After War Damage

Qatar expects to restore normal liquefied natural gas output within a few weeks, Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani told the Financial Times in an interview published on June 24, 2026. The recovery follows months of disruption that began on March 2, 2026, when QatarEnergy halted LNG production after Iranian drone and missile strikes hit its Ras Laffan complex during the war between Iran and a US-Israel coalition.

The Gulf state is one of the world's largest LNG exporters and supplies close to one fifth of global LNG trade. Iranian attacks in March damaged two of the 14 LNG trains at Ras Laffan, specifically Trains 4 and 6, along with one of the two units at the Pearl gas-to-liquids facility. QatarEnergy reported that the strikes removed about 12.8 million tonnes per year of capacity, equal to roughly 17 percent of the country's LNG export volume. The company declared force majeure on supply contracts with buyers in China, South Korea, Italy and Belgium, and estimated that full repairs to the destroyed trains would take three to five years.

The prime minister said most of Qatar's production capacity can return to normal within weeks, with the exception of the trains that were physically destroyed in the strikes. Teams have already been mobilized and QatarEnergy is preparing to resume normal operations as soon as conditions in the Strait of Hormuz stabilize. He cautioned that the company will only lift force majeure once it confirms that all safety issues have been addressed and that the facilities are safe to operate.

Shipping remains a key constraint. LNG tankers began transiting the strait again following a US-Iran memorandum of understanding reached on June 15, 2026, but traffic remains below pre-conflict levels. Some industry estimates suggest a full return to normal flows could extend into 2027 even with a lasting agreement. The prime minister stressed that a direct hotline between Washington and Tehran is essential to maintain coordination while mines are cleared from the waterway and to counter disinformation.

The recovery effort suffered a setback on June 21, 2026, when an explosion struck the Barzan gas processing plant at Ras Laffan at around 21:30 local time. The blast killed at least 13 foreign workers, most of them Indian and Pakistani nationals, and injured 66 others. Energy Minister and QatarEnergy chief executive Saad al-Kaabi described the incident as a technical accident during the restart of operations and ruled out sabotage or any hostile action. The Barzan plant had been intentionally shut down since December 2025 for urgent maintenance and had restarted only two days before the explosion. Barzan supplies pipeline gas to domestic power generation, water desalination and local industry rather than LNG for export, so its restart does not depend on the reopening of the strait. QatarEnergy said the blast did not affect LNG export operations or port infrastructure.

The damaged LNG trains represent the most lasting consequence of the conflict. Al-Kaabi has put the annual lost revenue from the destroyed capacity at around 20 billion dollars, and the repair timeline of three to five years means a portion of Qatar's pre-war output will remain offline well beyond the broader recovery. Looking further ahead, Qatar continues to advance its North Field expansion program, which aims to lift LNG production capacity from 77 million tonnes per year to 126 million tonnes per year by 2027. For now, the priority is restoring throughput from the intact trains and bringing shipping through Hormuz back to normal so that exports to Asian and European buyers can resume at full scale.