QatarEnergy rules out LNG export pipelines

State-backed QatarEnergy will not build pipelines to transport its liquefied natural gas (LNG) through neighbouring countries and will instead rely primarily on the Strait of Hormuz, its CEO said.

“We have decided not to go with pipelines. The decision was based on commercial and technical studies,” Saad Al-Kaabi said at the Qatar Economic Forum in New York. “We are only going to be using the strait.”

Plans to build pipelines through Oman, the UAE and Syria were proposed following the outbreak of the US-Iran war.

Al-Kaabi said Qatar was aiming to increase its gas production from 77 million tonnes to 142 million tonnes per year and sees building terminals outside the country as “redundant” facilities.

Strikes in March knocked out nearly 17 percent of Qatar’s LNG export capacity at Ras Laffan, from which Al-Kaabi estimated annual revenue losses of $20 billion.

Ras Laffan is the world’s largest LNG export facility, accounting for about 20 percent of global supply.

Three QatarEnergy facilities – two LNG and one gas-to-liquids (GTL) trains – were hit, the CEO said, adding that the GTL train will be repaired by the first quarter of 2027.

The LNG trains are being repaired and will be back within the next three years, Al-Kaabi said.

Production at Ras Laffan is “very minute”, but the company can begin operations (allowing for the reduction caused by damage) within weeks if the Strait of Hormuz reopens.

He said QatarEnergy projects are being delayed because the strait’s closure made it difficult to export heavy critical equipment by land.

Al-Kaabi said the Strait of Hormuz will never be obsolete, as US treasury secretary Scott Bessent has claimed.

Very few countries in the Gulf have waterways outside it, while the remaining – Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar – are all fully inside the region so there is a lot of trade happening, he said.

“The most important thing is to have good relationships with our neighbours… We have been living for centuries together, and we need to have that kind of understanding where these hostilities are not repeated again.”

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