(Photo credit: Wojciech Wrzesien/Shutterstock)The Cradle
OCT 13, 2026
QatarEnergy expects repairs to the damaged LNG trains to take up to five years, forcing Doha to seek replacement gas deals
Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani revealed on 13 October that state revenues plunged 42 percent in the first half of 2026 due to the closure of the Hormuz Strait and strikes on Ras Laffan, which crippled gas exports.
“It is only natural that the crisis would have a negative impact on public finances, as the total revenues declined by 42% during the first half of the year, while public expenditure fell by 14 percent, without compromising essential services or development priorities,” the emir said.
“We decided not to reduce essential services and opted to maintain our developmental priorities, in order to sustain Qatar’s ongoing economic momentum,” he added.
Iranian strikes put two of Qatar’s 14 liquefied natural gas (LNG) export trains out of action, taking about 17 percent of its capacity offline. QatarEnergy says repairs will take three to five years.
The World Bank expects Qatar’s economy to shrink 20.9 percent this year, the steepest contraction in the region and the country’s worst performance in five decades, after average monthly gas output fell by about 67 percent between March and July.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projects a 15.6 percent contraction for 2026, followed by an 18.8 percent rebound in 2027.
The damage Qatar suffered from Iran’s retaliatory strikes during the US-Israeli war on the Islamic Republic has sent Doha searching abroad for protection and for replacement gas.
On 2 October, Axios reported that the US had sent two additional Patriot batteries to Saudi Arabia and Qatar to guard their oil and gas facilities. US President Donald Trump is weighing whether to relaunch his bombing campaign on Iran, after rejecting Tehran’s offer to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Saudi and Qatari leaders lobbied Trump against a major assault in August, fearing retaliation against their energy infrastructure. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has vowed to widen the war’s geography if attacks resume.
On 11 September, Reuters reported that QatarEnergy was negotiating multi-year LNG deals running to 2031 with Venture Global, Cheniere, and Woodside to replace output lost when Iran struck Ras Laffan.
Since then, the state firm has relied on spot cargoes to meet its commitments to Asian buyers, who take about 80 percent of its supply.
