BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 24. QatarEnergy has declared force majeure on some of its long-term liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply contracts, including for customers in Italy, Belgium, South Korea and China TurkicWorld reports via aljazeera.
The move on Tuesday comes amid production and supply disruptions caused by the United States-Israeli war on Iran.
Force majeure is a clause in contracts that allows a party to be excused from its obligations due to unforeseeable events. Petroleum companies in Kuwait and Bahrain have also recently invoked force majeure.
Global energy markets have been reeling since the US and Israel began attacking Iran on February 28.
Iranian missile and drone strikes across the Middle East, including most notably in the Gulf region, have targeted oil and gas facilities, prompting international condemnation.
Iran has also essentially closed the Strait of Hormuz, a critical Gulf waterway through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil and LNG supplies transit.
The attacks and the closure of the strait have spurred mounting concern as energy prices have soared.
Last week, QatarEnergy CEO Saad al-Kaabi said an Iranian attack on Qatar’s Ras Laffan gas facility wiped out about 17 percent of the country’s LNG export capacity, causing an estimated $20bn in lost annual revenue and threatening supplies to Europe and Asia.
Saad al-Kaabi told the Reuters news agency that two of Qatar’s 14 LNG trains, the equipment used to liquefy natural gas, and one of its two gas-to-liquids facilities were damaged in Iranian attacks.
The repairs will sideline 12.8 million tonnes of LNG production per year for three to five years, he said.
