Authorities said a ‘technical accident’ occurred at the Barzan local gas supply facility on Sunday evening.
Qatar, which hosts a major U.S. military base, has come under repeated Iranian missile and drone attacks during the Iran war,which trapped around 20% of global LNG supply in the Gulf before some shipments began to resume recently.
Speaking to reporters on Monday,Qatar’s Energy Ministry Saad al-Kaabi said 13 people had died and 66 were injured. Those killed in the blast were all from India and Pakistan, he said.
“This was an accident and not a sabotage or hostile in nature…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.
There is no risk to the environment and the plant’s export capabilities were unaffected, he said, adding that an investigation had started into the blast, which was felt across central Doha, panicking residents more than 70 kilometers away.
The incident highlights the challenges Gulf producersface inrampingup oil and gas production from facilities shut in during the Iran war.
Qatarhas been among the hardest hit by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz as it has no alternative routes to export its LNG.
Restarting LNG operations is a particularly complex process due to a deliberately slow cooldown to avoid thermal shock. LNG trains cannot restart simultaneously and must be brought back in sequence.
In the liquefaction process – which turns gas into a liquid state by cooling it down to approximately minus 162 degrees Celsius (minus 260 degrees Fahrenheit) – the cooldown is the most critical step.
Theplant where the blast occurred, the Barzan gas supply facility, is part ofRas Laffan Industrial City,QatarEnergy’svastLNG production and exportsitewith an annual production capacity of 77 million metric ?tons.
Barzan supplies pipeline gas for local industry and power generation and can also produce liquefied petroleum gas and other products for export.
An Iranian missile attack in March struck two ofRas Laffan’sgas-processing units, slashing about 17% ofQatar’s LNG export capacity whichQatarEnergy’sCEOtold Reuterswould take three to five years to repair.
The war also forced the company to evacuateabout 10,000workers from offshore rigs and onshore processing plants. The company reported no injuries during the March missile attack.
(Reporting by Andrew Mills, Menna Alaa El-Din, Ahmed Tolba and Marwa Rashad; additional reporting by Nayera Abdallah, Tala Ramadan, and Emily Chow; writing by Maha El Dahan; editing by Jason Neely)
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2026.
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