At least 13 people were killed and 66 injured after an explosion in Qatar while the country was restarting its natural gas production after a shutdown during the Iran war, Qatari authorities said.
The blast late on Sunday was caused by a technical malfunction at a plant at Ras Laffan Industrial City, the Qatari Interior Ministry said in a statement on social media. Ras Laffan is the main site in Qatar for producing liquefied natural gas, the resource that underpins the country’s economy.
QatarEnergy, the state energy company, said on social media that the explosion and fire had occurred at a local gas supply facility “during the start-up of operations” at Ras Laffan.
By Monday afternoon, 13 people had been confirmed dead, all of them workers, Saad al-Kaabi, Qatar’s energy minister, said during a televised press conference. The explosion was an accident and not an act of sabotage, he said, and there was no environmental impact expected.
The facility was used for domestic gas production, so the explosion should not affect exports, Mr. al-Kaabi said. The authorities were evaluating the damage and how much it would cost to repair.
Qatar, a small peninsula that juts into the Persian Gulf, is one of the world’s largest exporters of liquefied natural gas. The country shuttered gas production in the early days of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, sending shock waves through energy markets. In March, an Iranian missile and drone attack caused significant damage to facilities at Ras Laffan, and Qatari officials announced that restoring full production capacity could take years.
The United States and Iran reached a preliminary agreement to end the war last week. Qatar was an important mediator in the negotiations to reach that deal.
