QatarEnergy may have to declare force majeure after Iran attack

(Sharecast News) - The boss of QatarEnergy said on Thursday that the company may have to declare force majeure after Iran's attack damaged facilities that produce 17% of its liquefied natural gas export capacity.

In an interview with Reuters, Saad al-Kaabi said it will take three to five years to repair them.

Kaabi said the damange has caused an estimated $20bn in lost annual revenue and threatens supplies to Europe and Asia.

Two of Qatar's 14 LNG trains and one of its two gas-to-liquids (GTL) facilities were damaged in the strikes, he said, and the repairs will sideline 12.8 million tons per year of LNG for three to five years.

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 damaged trains.

"I mean, these are long-term contracts that we have to declare force majeure. We already declared, but that was a shorter term. Now it's whatever the period is," he told Reuters.

"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," he added.

Oil and gas prices surged after Iranian missiles overnight caused significant damage to the world's largest liquefied natural gas facility, Ras Laffan in Qatar. The attack was launched in retaliation for a strike on Iran's large South Pars gas field.