Pakistanis, Indians among 13 dead after 'technical malfunction' at Qatar LNG plant

Pakistani and Indian nationals were among 13 killed after an explosion at Qatar’s massive Ras Laffan liquefied natural gas (LNG) complex, attributed to a “technical malfunction”, Qatar’s Minister of State for Energy Saad al-Kaabi said on Monday. Authorities are investigating the cause of the explosion, which Saad al-Kaabi said was “an accident and not sabotage or hostile in nature”. He announced “the tragic loss of 13 lives of our people who hold Indian and Pakistani nationalities”. The state minister said that 66 people were reported injured and were receiving medical treatment, none of whom were in life-threatening condition”. They hold Qatari, Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Kenyan, Ghanian, Tanzanian, Nigerian and Nepalese nationalities, he added. The interior ministry said a “technical malfunction” occurred on Sunday evening, with authorities saying the incident took place at the Barzan local gas supply facility. The explosion occurred as workers were restarting operations halted after an Iranian attack in March. The blast took place at a unit supplying gas to local firms and reverberated across Doha. Saad al-Kaabi, also the CEO of QatarEnergy, said an investigation had started into the incident. “It will not affect anything regarding export. It will not affect anything regarding our local requirements,” Kaabi said, adding that the explosion had “no environmental impact”. At the time of the explosion, AFP journalists in the Qatari capital heard the blast on the country’s northern coast, 64 kilometres away. Another, 20km away, saw bright orange flames and a plume of smoke rising from the area, home to the world’s largest liquefied natural gas hub. Qatar, which hosts a major US military base, has come under repeated Iranian missile and drone attacks during the Iran war, which trapped around 20 per cent of global LNG supply in the Gulf before some shipments began to resume recently. Qatar’s state-owned energy company said the blast erupted “during the start-up of