JUNE 22, 2026
Explosion at Qatar's Ras Laffan gas terminal kills 13 workers during restart operations
An explosion and fire at the Barzan gas supply facility within Qatar's Ras Laffan industrial area killed 13 workers and injured 66 others on Sunday night. Qatar's Energy Minister Saad Sherida al-Kaabi confirmed at a Monday press conference that the incident was an accident, not sabotage, occurring as workers were restarting operations at the plant. The dead were identified as Indian and Pakistani nationals; the injured included Qatari citizens and workers from various African and Asian nations.
The explosion struck the Barzan gas supply facility at Ras Laffan, Qatar's major industrial complex and a centerpiece of the country's natural gas export infrastructure, on Sunday night. State-run QatarEnergy, which owns nearly all of the plant alongside a small share held by ExxonMobil, said workers had only recently resumed operations at the site after a months-long shutdown.
Energy Minister al-Kaabi told reporters that the Barzan plant had been "intentionally completely stopped since December 2025 due to urgent maintenance requirements" and had been restarted only two days before the blast. He said the fire was brought under control following an emergency response and that none of the 66 injured faced life-threatening conditions. QatarEnergy launched an investigation to determine the precise cause.
The Barzan plant had a capacity of nearly 1.4 billion standard cubic feet of sales gas per day, used primarily for Qatar's domestic electricity generation and water desalination, according to the Associated Press. The Washington Examiner reported that al-Kaabi said a separate Iranian strike on Ras Laffan in mid-March had already impacted 17% of Qatar's export capacity and cost QatarEnergy roughly $20 billion in annual revenue; production at the facility had been halted at that point due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.