(WO) — Strikes on Qatar’s North Field and Iran’s South Pars have disrupted operations across the world’s largest gas resource, with about 4.5 Bcfd of Qatari gas-processing capacity affected and repairs potentially taking up to a year, according to Wood Mackenzie.
North Field and South Pars form a single supergiant gas structure spanning roughly 9,000 sq km on the Qatar Arch. Wood Mackenzie estimates the fields contain more than 2,200 Tcf of remaining gas resources, representing about 25% of the global total, and account for roughly 10% of worldwide gas production.
In Qatar, strikes on the Pearl gas-to-liquids (GTL) complex in March and an explosion at the Barzan gas plant in June affected approximately 4.5 Bcfd of processing capacity. The outages include two LNG trains totaling 12.7 MMtpa, equivalent to roughly 17% of Qatar’s LNG export capacity.
Wood Mackenzie estimates repairs to the Qatari facilities will cost approximately $5.8 billion, with recovery timelines ranging from four to 12 months. The Pearl GTL outage alone puts about 10% of Shell’s upstream cash flow at risk, according to the consultancy.
“Qatar is managing US$5.8 billion in repairs and recovery timelines of up to twelve months while commissioning the largest LNG expansion program in the world,” said Alexandre Araman, director, Middle East Upstream at Wood Mackenzie.
Iran has also sustained disruptions at the South Pars field. Strikes on the Assaluyeh processing hub, which handles about 30% of South Pars production, and Phase 13 facilities at Kangan have affected output across multiple phases of the development.
The disruptions come as Qatar advances North Field East, North Field South and North Field West, which are expected to add a combined 48 MMtpa of LNG capacity and lift plateau gas production to 28 Bcfd by 2033. Wood Mackenzie expects Qatar to have 54 MMtpa of uncontracted LNG volumes by 2035.
The consultancy said the pace of infrastructure repairs could influence long-term LNG contracting decisions as buyers reassess supply security. Qatar exported more than 80 million tonnes of LNG in 2025.
Beyond LNG, North Field production supports Qatar’s condensate refining, NGL, methanol, ammonia and GTL industries, as well as roughly one-third of global helium supply.
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