Minister of State for Energy Affairs: Repairs to Two Ras Laffan LNG Lines Will Take Three Years

HE Saad bin Sherida Al-Kaabi, Minister of State for Energy Affairs and QatarEnergy President and CEO, expressed his gratitude to Qatar’s neighbours for welcoming the use of their land to build a pipeline bypassing the Strait of Hormuz.

“We are grateful to our neighbours for welcoming our use of their land. But the reality is that not everything can be transported through pipelines. The problem is that liquefied natural gas, our main export commodity, cannot be transported through pipelines in its liquefied state. It must be transported as natural gas and then liquefied at receiving terminals wherever they may be. This means building facilities that would make those we are constructing in Qatar as part of the North Field expansion project redundant, and that makes no economic sense,” he said. He added: “We decided not to use pipelines as an alternative based on commercial and technical criteria.”

His remarks came during a panel discussion on “Reshaping Energy Around the World” at the Qatar Economic Forum 2026, held for the first time in New York alongside the high-level meetings of the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly.

Asked about damage to Qatar’s gas production facilities and when production could resume, Al-Kaabi said the attacks on Ras Laffan damaged two liquefied natural gas production lines and one gas-to-liquids production line. “Repairs to this line will be completed in the first quarter of 2027, but repairing the two LNG production lines will take three years,” he said. Qatar is ready to resume normal production within a few weeks of the Strait of Hormuz reopening.

Regarding the declaration of force majeure, he said: “Throughout our history, we have been a reliable producer and supplier and have never failed or fallen short in delivering any shipment. What is happening now is entirely beyond our control.”

Al-Kaabi rejected the idea that the Strait of Hormuz has no value, saying: “It is wrong to describe the Strait of Hormuz as having no value because the waters of the Gulf carry all kinds of goods and products—not just oil and gas—to and from all the countries around it.” He stressed the need to restore normal traffic through the Strait, adding: “The countries around the Gulf are neighbours and will remain neighbours for generations to come. Therefore, we need to have good relations with our neighbours.”

Responding to reports that Qatar is buying quantities of LNG from the market, he said: “I announced in 2024 that we were working to build one of the world’s largest LNG trading entities, and said it would be very large. Today, I would like to say that in the very near future we will have the largest LNG trading entity in the world. We are building this leading position.”

On QatarEnergy’s projects in the United States, Al-Kaabi said export shipments from the first production line at the Golden Pass LNG project have already begun. “We expect the second and third lines to be fully operational next year. We are also building the world’s largest ethane cracker at the Golden Triangle Polymers project, which has just begun commissioning. It is expected to start operating in the coming weeks.”

Source: QNA

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