Fifty-four people were injured and 18 others were missing after an explosion and fire hit QatarEnergy’s Barzan local gas supply facility in Ras Laffan Industrial City during start-up operations on Sunday evening, according to QatarEnergy and Qatar’s Ministry of Interior.
Emergency teams were deployed to the site, the fire was brought under control and search operations continued for the missing. Qatar’s International Search and Rescue Group worked with Civil Defense teams at the facility.
Authorities said preliminary findings pointed to a technical malfunction and said there was no hazardous leak or release of substances that posed a threat to public safety. QatarEnergy has not disclosed whether the blast caused damage to the plant.
The explosion was felt in central Doha, more than 70 km from Ras Laffan. Barzan supplies pipeline gas to local industry and Qatar’s power generation sector, and can also produce ethane, condensate, liquefied petroleum gas and sulphur for domestic and export markets.
The facility is inside Ras Laffan Industrial City, QatarEnergy’s main LNG production and export hub, which has annual LNG production capacity of 77m tonnes. The restart followed a March incident that damaged two gas-processing units and cut about 17% of Qatar’s LNG export capacity. QatarEnergy chief executive Saad al-Kaabi has said repairs could take three to five years.
QatarEnergy is the national energy corporation of the State of Qatar, with operations covering exploration, production, processing, refining, marketing and delivery of oil and gas.
QatarEnergy LNG is the company’s LNG operating arm and runs 14 LNG trains.
