By Maha El Dahan, Andrew Mills and Yousef Saba
DUBAI, March 20 (Reuters) – As Qatar reels from an Iranian attack that has hobbled its giant natural gas company, its boss, who doubles as the country’s energy minister, says he had warned officials and executives of just such a danger should Iran’s own sites be hit.
“I was always warning, talking to executives from oil and gas that are partnered with us, talking to the U.S. Secretary of Energy, to warn him of that consequence and that that could be detrimental to us,” QatarEnergy CEO Saad al-Kaabi told Reuters.
QatarEnergy’s partners include major U.S. energy companies such as ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips.
‘AWARE OF THE THREAT’
“They were aware of the threat, and they were always reminded by me, almost on a daily basis, that we need to make sure that there is restraint on oil and gas facilities,” he said.
The U.S. Department of Energy deferred to the White House on the matter.
Asked for comment, White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said: “President Trump and his entire energy team were not ignorant of the reality that there would be short-term disruptions to oil and gas supply during the ongoing operations in Iran, and planned for these highly anticipated, temporary disruptions.”
ExxonMobil declined to comment.
“We remain fully committed to our longstanding partnership and will continue to work with QatarEnergy on a path to recovery,” a ConocoPhillips spokesperson said.
Three weeks into the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, missile and drone attacks have damaged tankers, refineries and other important energy infrastructure, with the biggest known impact so far on QatarEnergy’s Ras Laffan, the world’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) complex.
Kaabi told Reuters on Thursday that the damage to the facilities that had cost $26 billion to build would impact LNG deliveries to Europe and Asia for up to five years.
Governments have long feared such a scenario, where facilities vital to the world’s supply of not only crude oil and natural gas, but also products such as jet fuel and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) used for heating and cooking, sustain long-term damage.
NO PRIOR WARNING
Israel attacked Iran’s main South Pars gas field in a sharp escalation of the war on Wednesday. Tehran’s response was a series of attacks on Gulf energy infrastructure in Kuwait, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar’s Ras Laffan.
Kaabi said he had no prior warning of the South Pars attack.
“I was not aware of anything, but I don’t think anybody was aware. President Trump said he didn’t know. So do you think we would know?”
South Pars is part of the world’s largest gas field which Iran shares with Qatar, where it is named the North Field.
Kaabi said QatarEnergy had not yet assessed whether insurance would cover its war-related losses.
DAMAGE DETAILS
He said not only had the attack on Ras Laffan knocked out 17% of Qatar’s LNG export capacity, but the impact would last up to five years because of what was damaged.
“The cold boxes are gone,” Kaabi said, referring to the cooling mechanism damaged on two of the complex’s 14 trains, which purify and chill gas for transport as a liquid.
“This is the main unit, that is the cooling box of the LNG, it is completely destroyed.”
MAJOR EXPANSION NOW DELAYED
Having evacuated its facilities after an Iranian attack earlier this month, there will also be a delay to expansion at Ras Laffan, Kaabi said, impacting gas meant for delivery to countries including France, Germany, and China from 2027.
“It wasn’t easy to pull everybody from offshore, you know, 10,000 people evacuated in 24 hours, and shut down all the operations,” he said.
“I’m so glad we have zero injuries, zero fatalities. It is because of that decision we took.”
The expansion, set to boost Doha’s position as the world’s top LNG exporter, was to have ramped up Qatar’s liquefaction capacity from 77 million to 126 million tons per annum by 2027.
“No work is happening on the North Field expansion. There are no workers there. It’s definitely delayed,” Kaabi said.
“I think it will be delayed for months, if not a year or more.”
QatarEnergy’s production can only restart should hostilities end, and even then it would take at least three to four months to resume loading fully, Kaabi said.
WIDER GULF ECONOMIC IMPACT
Kaabi, who is also chairman of Qatar Airways, said the wider impact of the war would ripple across all the economies of the Gulf.
“This has taken the whole region back 10-20 years.”
“Tourism is out. Your airlines are not flying …Your trade is down. There is nothing moving from any of the ports.”
“You have economies that have zero income from oil and gas, and we are predominantly an oil and gas economy. So obviously, the spending from the governments is going to be at a much, much lower rate.”
‘DIFFICULT TO DESCRIBE’
Kaabi has spent his career at QatarEnergy, joining the state firm in the mid 1980s while still studying at Pennsylvania State University.
Known for keeping a cool head in challenging situations, he rose through the ranks to become CEO of what was then Qatar Petroleum in 2014.
Asked how he felt about the attacks on his company and country, Kaabi was lost for words.
“How I feel is difficult to describe,” he said before pausing and moving on 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)
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