54 injured and 18 missing after explosion at Qatar LNG site

DOHA - Fifty-four people have been injured while 18 are missing after an explosion at Qatar's core liquefied natural gas processing site of Ras Laffan on Sunday, authorities said.

An incident during the start-up of operations at Ras Laffan Industrial City resulted in an explosion and fire at the Barzan local gas supply facility on Sunday evening, QatarEnergy said in a statement.

Emergency response teams were deployed to contain the fire, which was now under control, it said. Fifty-four people had been injured and rescue teams were looking for 18 missing people, Qatar's Interior Ministry said in a statement. It attributed the explosion to a "technical accident" and said there was no threat to public safety.

QatarEnergy did not indicate whether the explosion had caused any damage to the plant, which supplies gas to the domestic market.

A Reuters witness earlier reported that a loud boom was heard in the capital Doha, south of the Ras Laffan facility. The Barzan gas facility has a capacity of 1.4 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd), and supplies pipeline gas to local industries and Qatar's power generation sector. It also has capacity to produce ethane, condensate, liquefied petroleum gas and sulphur for domestic and export markets.

The facility is located in Ras Laffan Industrial City, QatarEnergy's primary site for LNG production and export with a total production capacity of 77 million metric tons per annum via 14 trains. Two of Qatar's LNG trains and one of its two gas-to-liquids facilities were damaged in strikes amid the US-Israeli war with Iran, knocking out 17% of the country's LNG export capacity with repairs expected to take years.