finance
Explosion at Qatar gas terminal kills 13, injures 66 during restart after prior Iranian strikes
@NBCNews reported an explosion and fire at the Barzan gas facility in Ras Laffan on Sunday night. The blast killed 13 and injured 66 as operations resumed after prior Iranian strikes. Energy Minister Saad Sherida al-Kaabi called the incident an accident.
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An explosion tore through the Barzan gas supply facility at Qatar’s Ras Laffan industrial area Sunday night, killing at least 13 people and injuring 66 others, @NBCNews reported. The blast occurred as workers attempted to restart operations at the terminal after Iran bombed it during the war, and it triggered a fire.
Energy Minister Saad Sherida al-Kaabi told a news conference in Doha on Monday that the incident was an accident and not sabotage or hostile in nature.
He said the dead included workers from India and Pakistan, while the injured came from Qatar and various African and Asian nations. The Barzan plant had a capacity of almost 1.4 billion standard cubic feet of sales gas per day. Qatar used the output primarily for local electricity generation and to power water desalination plants.
Qatar owns nearly all of the facility, with a small share held by ExxonMobil. Qatar had already halted production at Ras Laffan because of Iranian attacks before an Iranian missile struck the site in March and caused extensive damage. The country shares its massive offshore natural gas field in the Persian Gulf with Iran.
The blast occurred at the Ras Laffan Industrial City natural gas export terminal.
