Ras Laffan Industrial City

Ras Laffan was built from 1996 on Qatar's northeastern coast to exploit the North Field, the world's largest single gas reservoir, shared with Iran's South Pars. The complex has become the operational centre of Qatar's LNG export economy: 14 liquefaction trains with roughly 77 million tonnes of annual capacity, about 17% of world LNG export capacity, run by state operator QatarEnergy. Long-term contracts tie the facility to buyers in Japan, South Korea, China, India and Europe, and QatarEnergy had committed to expanding capacity to 126 million tonnes a year before the 2026 conflict.

Iranian strikes in March 2026 destroyed two of the fourteen trains, a structural loss now expected to cap Ras Laffan's output at around 80% of nameplate for three to five years regardless of when the wider Strait of Hormuz dispute is resolved. No Qatari LNG transited the strait between 28 February and early April 2026, and QatarEnergy declared Force majeure on contracts including Belgium, Italy and Poland.