Overview
- An internal explosion and fire ripped through the Barzan local gas supply facility during start‑up work on Sunday evening, and Qatar’s energy ministry later reported 13 dead and 66 injured.
- Emergency crews brought the blaze under control, launched search‑and‑rescue for workers who remained unaccounted for and deployed the Qatari International Search and Rescue Group alongside civil defence teams.
- Qatari officials have described the event as an operational incident caused by a technical malfunction and have opened a formal investigation into what went wrong during the restart.
- Barzan primarily supplies domestic gas for electricity and desalination, and QatarEnergy has not yet released a damage assessment or said whether the incident will affect export trains at Ras Laffan.
- Ras Laffan houses one of the world’s largest LNG hubs and was damaged by Iranian strikes in March, so markets and operators will watch investigation results and repair timelines for signs of wider disruption.