DUBAI, Mar 20 (Reuters) – As Qatar recovers from an Iranian attack that damaged its gigantic natural gas company, its chief, who also serves as the country’s Energy Minister, says he warned authorities and executives about the danger, should Iran’s facilities be struck.
‘I was always warning, talking with oil and gas executives who are our partners, talking with the US Energy Secretary to alert him to this consequence and that it could be detrimental to us,’ said Saad al-Kaabi, the CEO of QatarEnergy, to Reuters.
Among QatarEnergy’s partners are major US energy companies such as ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips.
‘AWARE OF THE THREAT’
‘They were aware of the threat and I reminded them almost daily that we need to ensure containment with regard to oil and gas facilities,’ he said.
Asked about the matter, White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said: ‘President Trump and his entire energy team did not ignore the reality that there would be short-term disruptions in the supply of oil and gas during ongoing operations in Iran, and planned 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,’ said a ConocoPhillips spokesperson.
Three weeks after the start of the US- and Israel-led war against Iran, missile- and drone-attacks damaged tankers, refineries and other major energy infrastructure, with the greatest known impact so far at Ras Laffan, QatarEnergy’s LNG complex, the largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) complex in the world.
Kaabi told Reuters on Thursday that the damage to the facilities, which cost $26 billion to build, would affect LNG deliveries to Europe and Asia for up to five years.
Governments have long feared a scenario like this, in which facilities vital to the global supply not only of crude oil and natural gas, but also products such as aviation fuel and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) used for heating and cooking, suffer long-term damage.
NO PRIOR NOTICE
Israel attacked Iran’s main gas field, South Pars, in a major escalation of the war on Wednesday. Tehran’s response was a series of attacks on Gulf energy infrastructure in Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Ras Laffan in Qatar.
Kaabi said he had received no prior notice of the South Pars attack.
‘I wasn’t aware of anything, but I think no one was aware. President Trump said he didn’t know. So do you think we would have known?’
South Pars is part of the world’s largest gas field that Iran shares with Qatar, where it is called the North Field.
Kaabi said that QatarEnergy had not yet assessed whether the insurance would cover its war-related losses.
DAMAGES
He said that not only did the Ras Laffan attack knock out 17% of Qatar’s LNG export capacity, but the impact would last up to five years due to the damage.
‘The chillers disappeared,’ Kaabi said, referring to the cooling mechanism damaged in two of the 14 LNG liquefaction units of the complex, which purify and cool the gas for transport as a liquid.
‘This is the main unit, which is the LNG cooling box, and it is completely destroyed.’
