Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said the Gulf state expects to resume normal liquefied natural gas production within weeks as efforts continue to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.
Sheikh Mohammed said a direct hotline between the United States and Iran was essential to preventing disruptions in the strategic waterway and ensuring vessels could transit safely as maritime traffic gradually returns to normal levels.
The hotline, agreed during US-Iran talks in Switzerland, is intended to verify threats against commercial vessels and prevent rogue actors or misinformation from undermining efforts to restore shipping through the strait, according to the FT interview.
QatarEnergy suspended LNG production after the United States and Israel launched their war on Iran on 28 February, following a drone attack on the company’s massive Ras Laffan facility.
Subsequent Iranian missile strikes caused severe damage to parts of the complex, affecting around 17% of Qatar’s LNG production capacity. Repairs to some facilities could take years.
“Within a few weeks, production will come back to normal, except the damaged facility,” Sheikh Mohammed told the FT, adding that QatarEnergy had already begun preparing tankers and mobilising teams to restart operations as soon as conditions in the strait stabilise.
He cautioned, however, that QatarEnergy would only lift force majeure declarations once it was satisfied that shipping routes were safe and operational risks had been addressed.
Qatar, the world’s second-largest LNG exporter, expects shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz to gradually return to pre-war levels during the first month of the US-Iran agreement, although Sheikh Mohammed warned that restoring confidence in the route would take time.
