From world’s largest LNG exporter to importer: How Iran war, Hormuz closure forced Qatar to turn to US gas | Today’s news

State-run QatarEnergy is reportedly in talks with Venture Global, Cheniere, Woodside and other US producers on multi-year liquefied natural gas (LNG) deals to replace lost export volumes from the damaged Ras Laffan plant, business and industry sources told Reuters.

The move comes as the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic trade route, remains in a chokehold amid the ongoing war between Iran and the US.

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The Ras Laffan complex suffered major disruption after two of its 14 LNG trains and gas processing facilities (GTL) were damaged by Iranian strikes in March.

The talks also mark a shift away from QatarEnergy’s purchases of dozens of U.S. spot LNG cargoes to help meet obligations to some of its Asian clients, suggesting it is now looking for a longer-term solution to cover the shortfall, Reuters reported.

Qatar: From world’s largest LNG exporter to importer

Qatar was among the world’s largest exporters of LNG before the Iran war broke out in February 2026. It is among several other Gulf countries (Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Iraq, Bahrain and Iran) that rely on the Strait of Hormuz, located off Iran’s coast, to deliver the vast majority of their oil exports.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) reports that over 110 bcm of LNG passed through the Strait of Hormuz in 2025. It claimed that about 93 percent of Qatar’s and 96 percent of the UAE’s LNG exports pass through the strait, accounting for nearly one-fifth of global LNG trade. There are no alternative routes to market these volumes.

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Most LNG from Qatar and the UAE goes to Asia. About 80 percent of Qatar’s LNG supplies are typically exported to buyers in Asia, according to Reuters.

Before the conflict erupted in late February, Qatar had pushed for plans to nearly double output from its Ras Laffan LNG export complex by 2030, Bloomberg reported.

However, the ongoing closure of the Strait of Hormuz and Iranian attacks have eliminated roughly 17 percent of Qatar’s liquefaction capacity.

Saad al-Kaabi, QatarEnergy’s chief executive and minister of state for energy affairs, told Reuters in March that the Iranian attacks knocked out 17 percent of Qatar’s LNG export capacity, costing it an estimated $20 billion in annual revenue and threatening supplies to Europe and Asia.

Saad al-Kaabi said two of Qatar’s 14 LNG trains and one of its two gas-to-liquids (GTL) facilities were damaged in the unprecedented attacks. The repairs will knock out 12.8 million tons of LNG a year for three to five years, he said in an interview.

The Ras Laffan facility in Qatar, which is the world’s largest liquefaction facility, has been offline since the March 2 attack, the IEA said in a report. Regional gas production is also affected by the closure of oil fields, which has reduced gas production related to oil production.

According to the IEA’s latest quarterly gas market report, damage to Qatar’s LNG liquefaction infrastructure is expected to “reduce projected supply growth and delay the expected global LNG supply wave.”

The report claimed: “Short-term supply losses and slower capacity growth could result in a cumulative loss of around 140 billion cubic meters of LNG supply between 2026 and 2030.”

Read also | Government lifts gas curbs as LNG shipments continue via Hormuz

“While new liquefaction projects in other regions are expected to offset these losses over time, the impacts of these disruptions could be felt in 2026 and 2027,” he added.

In March, QatarEnergy’s chief executive said two damaged trains would require force majeure on long-term contracts of up to five years for LNG shipments to Italy, Belgium, South Korea and China, Kaabi said.

“I mean, these are long-term contracts that we have to declare for force majeure. We’ve declared before, but it was a shorter period. Now it’s any period,” he said.

The impact of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz

Disruption to transit through the Strait of Hormuz has cut LNG supplies from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates by more than 300 million cubic meters a day since March 1 — a loss of more than 2 billion cubic meters of gas each week, the IEA said.

With uncertainty over when flows through the main waterway will resume, many clients in Asia have begun to look for alternatives to Qatar’s LNG. Some market participants are conducting stress tests in which no Qatari gas is available, a source told Reuters.

According to the report, two ballast vessels associated with QatarEnergy, Al Ghashamiya and Al Daayen, appeared in the Strait of Hormuz this week on September 9 and 6 after they were last seen outside the waterway on September 6 and 3.

Another vessel operated by QatarEnergy, the Al Marrouna, also left the Strait of Hormuz this week, carrying a cargo from Ras Laffan to Pakistan on September 10. The trip marked the first known shipment of LNG aboard a Qatar-bound tanker since late July, when Al Areesh also carried cargo from Ras Laffan to Pakistan.

Meanwhile, in the Red Sea, the Iranian-backed Houthis took control of the Yemeni port city of Mocha on Thursday and were advancing along the Red Sea coast toward strategic islands, military sources said.

Twenty-six commodity vessels were transiting the Bab el-Mandeb Strait on Thursday, monitoring data showed. Of these, 10 vessels entered and 16 exited.

QatarEnergy’s new US LNG plan

QatarEnergy is in talks with several producers to secure multi-year US LNG contracts through 2031, three business and industry sources told Reuters.

QatarEnergy Trading, the trading arm of QatarEnergy, which managed the company’s 10 million tonne LNG portfolio, is aiming for 2-3 million metric tonnes a year until 2031, they said. “They will have to buy everything they can get their hands on,” said a fourth source.

QatarEnergy did not respond to Reuters’ request for immediate comment. Venture Global and Cheniere declined to comment, while Woodside LNG said it does not comment on market speculation.

U.S. projects under construction have a total of 25 million metric tons of LNG available for purchase, according to data compiled by research firm Rapidan Energy.

Read also | US-Iran War: Why Qatari Prime Minister Al Thani is in Tehran

Venture Global has the most available LNG with 10 mtpa off-contract, with both Cheniere and Woodside Energy having 6 mtpa also available for sale and 3 mtpa available from Sempra’s Port Arthur LNG project, Rapidan data show.

“Qatar’s current pursuit of long-term LNG volumes from other producers to help Qatar meet their customer contracts suggests that Qatar now sees a risk to its ability to export LNG for several years,” said Saul Kavonic, head of energy research and consulting at MST Marquee.

“This signals that Qatar believes that the breach in the Strait of Hormuz may take longer and the damage to Qatar’s LNG infrastructure has been more extensive and may take longer to repair than originally expected,” he added.