By Giulia Petroni and Georgi Kantchev
A blast tore through Qatar's key natural-gas facility left dozens of people injured and 18 missing, and set back operations of one of the world's most important gas exporters as it tries to restore shipments disrupted by the Iran war.
Qatari authorities attributed the Sunday blast at the Ras Laffan industrial complex to a technical accident during operations to restart the facility. They said it posed no threat to public safety, though the extent of damage or any effect on exports wasn't clear. Rescue teams were searching for those missing, the country's Interior Ministry said.
State-owned operator QatarEnergy said that the resulting fire was under control. The Interior Ministry said that in addition to the missing, 54 people were injured. The blast hit Ras Laffan's Barzan gas facility, which supplies Qatar's domestic market.
The incident comes at a delicate moment for Qatar, whose liquefied-natural-gas industry has been trying to move on from crisis footing and increase operations after fighting around the Strait of Hormuz snarled the movement of tankers through the Gulf.
Qatar, one of the world's top three LNG exporters before the war alongside the U.S. and Australia, halted production of the fuel early in the conflict following the closure of the strait and Iranian attacks on Ras Laffan. The attacks knocked out some 17% of the facility's capacity for up to five years.
Any delay to resumption of activities at Ras Laffan, the world's largest liquefied-natural-gas export hub, would add another pressure point for global gas markets still adjusting to months of Middle East supply uncertainty. On Monday, European gas prices rose slightly, with benchmark Dutch TTF up around 1%.
"Given the reported scale of the explosion, further impact on operations or delay to the restart timeline cannot be ruled out, even if direct liquefaction implications remain unconfirmed," said Christoph Halser, senior analyst for Gas & LNG Research at consulting firm Rystad Energy.
Efforts to restore production at Ras Laffan unfold as U.S. and Iranian officials negotiate the terms of a peace agreement, with mediators saying the two sides agreed over the weekend on a road map to reach a final deal within 60 days.
While some Middle Eastern oil was able to bypass the Strait of Hormuz through overland pipelines, Qatari LNG lacked alternative exits. Liquefaction facilities, meanwhile, are highly specialized engineering megaprojects that take years to construct and longer to repair than conventional oil fields.
Dominating a sandy stretch of Qatar's northern coast, Ras Laffan is a sprawling industrial fortress of pipes, flare stacks and loading berths built around the world's largest artificial harbor.
The facility has long been the foundation of Qatar's wealth and geopolitical clout, turning the small Gulf state into a key supplier of gas to Asia and Europe. Qatar accounted for roughly a fifth of global LNG exports before the war disruptions and had plans to nearly double capacity to 142 million tons a year by 2030, though analysts expect the war damage to delay some of those plans.
The export halt is also weighing on the country's economy, with the International Monetary Fund forecasting that its gross domestic product will shrink by 8.6% in 2026, the worst contraction in the Gulf region.
The incident adds Ras Laffan to a grim history of deadly oil-and-gas accidents, including the 1988 Piper Alpha platform fire in the North Sea, which killed 167 workers and the 2005 BP Texas City refinery explosion, which killed 15 and injured 180.
Write to Giulia Petroni at giulia.petroni@wsj.com and Georgi Kantchev at georgi.kantchev@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 22, 2026 06:21 ET (10:21 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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