An explosion at the Ras Laffan Industrial City — Qatar’s primary processing facility for liquid natural gas (LNG) — on Sunday killed at least 13 people and left 66 more injured.
The facility was shut down by an Iranian attack in March and was in the process of being reactivated after repairs were made.
“This was an accident, and not sabotage or hostile in nature,” Qatari Energy Minister Saad al-Kaabi told reporters on Monday.
“Plant production was intentionally completely stopped since December 2025 due to urgent maintenance requirements, it was first restarted again only two days ago,” he said.
Kaabi and other officials said the explosion did not pose an ongoing threat to public safety or an environmental hazard, and Ras Laffan’s crucial gas export terminals were unaffected. Nervous investors nevertheless drove up wholesale natural gas prices by four percent around the world, and even higher in some markets, on the news.
Plant officials attributed the explosion to a “technical accident” at the Barzan gas supply facility, which supplies gas to several parts of Qatar’s energy industry through a network of pipelines, as well as products for export.
The explosion on Sunday was powerful enough to shake windows in the capital city of Doha, which is over 40 miles away. At his press conference on Monday, the energy minister said the people killed in the explosion were all immigrant workers from India and Pakistan.
“We convey our deepest condolences to the families of those who have unfortunately passed away in the sad incident at Ras Laffan Industrial City last night,” the Indian Embassy in Qatar said in a social media post.
Kaabi said the circumstances of the blast were still under investigation and refused to say when operations at the affected facility might resume.
Ras Laffan is the world’s largest LNG export facility. Two of its gas processing units were hit by Iranian missile attacks in March, causing enough damage to reduce Qatar’s overall LNG exports by 17 percent. Officials said the damage from the attacks would take three to five years to fully repair.
Kaabi said on Monday that the facility involved in the explosion was primarily involved with processing LNG for domestic energy consumption, so the incident was unlikely to have a significant effect on exports.
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