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The internal explosion at QatarEnergy’s Barzan gas processing facility, which supplies one of its helium sites, is now being better understood.
The incident was caused by a technical malfunction during operations at a factory in Ras Laffan Industrial City, one of the world’s most strategically important gas hubs.
According to new media reports, at least 13 people have been killed and 66 people injured.
Industry sources confirmed the incident occurred at the Barzan gas processing plant rather than at QatarEnergy’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facilities.
Helium consultant Phil Kornbluth told gasworld, “The Barzan gas processing plant, which produces natural gas for the domestic market, has been down for repairs since early December.
“Since Barzan does not produce LNG, its restart is not dependent on the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. While details have not been made available, this sounds like a serious setback to the timetable for restarting the Barzan plant.”
The Barzan plant does, however, provide feed gas to QatarEnergy’s Helium 3 helium plant, which exclusively supplies Air Products.
Helium 3 has been down since early December for a pipeline repair, pre-dating the war by several months. Kornbluth said the site’s restart has nothing to do with the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
Air Products highlighted the impact of the outage on an earnings call earlier this year, telling investors that it has been drawing helium from its storage cavern in Beaumont, Texas, as weak market conditions persist.
CEO Eduardo Menezes said the company has not received product from Qatar since December and that the Middle East conflict has not materially changed its position.
The extent of the damage and any resulting impact on the restart schedule for Barzan and Helium 3 remain unclear.
