Fifty-four people were injured and 18 are missing after an explosion at Qatar's massive Ras Laffan liquefied natural (LNG) gas complex which occurred as workers were restarting operations halted after an Iranian attack in March.
Authorities said a 'technical accident' occurred at the Barzan local gas supply facility on Sunday evening and that there was no threat to public safety.
The blast rattled windows and was felt across central Doha, panicking residents more than 70 kilometres from Ras Laffan.
Qatar's Interior Ministry said in a statement that 54 people had been injured and rescue teams were looking for 18 missing people.
Emergency response teams were deployed and the fire has since been brought under control.
QatarEnergy did not say whether the explosion had caused any damage to the plant, which supplies pipeline gas to local industry and Qatar's power generation sector.
It can also produce ethane, condensate, liquefied petroleum gas and sulphur for domestic and export markets.
Qatar, which hosts a major U.S. military base, has come under repeated Iranian missile and drone attacks during the Iran war.
It has been among the hardest hit by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz as it has no alternative routes to export its LNG. The closure trapped around 20% of global LNG supply in the Gulf before shipments began to resume recently.
The facility is located in Ras Laffan Industrial City, QatarEnergy's primary site for LNG production and export with an annual production capacity of 77 million metric tons.
An Iranian missile attack in March struck two of its key gas-processing units, slashing about 17% of Qatar's LNG export capacity which QatarEnergy CEO Saad al-Kaabi told Reuters would take three to five years to repair.
The war also forced the company to evacuate about 10,000 workers from offshore rigs and onshore processing plants. The company reported no injuries during the March missile attack.
(Reuters- Reporting by Andrew Mills, Menna Alaa El-Din, Ahmed Tolba and Marwa Rashad; additional reporting by Emily Chow; Editing by David Dolan, Kate Mayberry and Jason Neely)
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