"The damage sustained by the LNG facilities will take between three to five years to repair."

"The impact is on China, South Korea, Italy and Belgium."

"This means that we will be compelled to declare force majeure for up to five years on some long-term LNG contracts."

Saad Sherida al-Kaabi, Qatar minister of state for energy affairs, president/CEO, QatarEnergy 

 

"The rating watch negative reflects the increased risk that the security environment for Qatar has more permanently deteriorated and the possibility that Qatar’s hydrocarbon infrastructure could again be a target."

"Combined with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, [this] will have an adverse impact on Qatar’s public finances."

Paul Gamble, head, Middle East and Africa sovereign ratings, Fitch Ratings

 

"Countries that rely on Qatar for 20 or even 30 per cent of their energy imports are now asking what happens if that supply doesn’t come."

"The immediate response has been to approach the US and Australia about securing alternatives."

Gary Ng, senior economist Asia-Pacific, Natixis   

In the line of fire: Qatar’s Ras Laffan complex has become a target  Getty Images

 

Virtually no gas has been exported by Qatar for over two months -- this, for a state that derives over 60 percent of its revenue from gas and gas-related exports. Representing the kind of national wealth for a very small country that allowed it free reign to transform a desert peninsula into a glittering metropolis, and a political system that was able to spend billions in investment abroad, most notably in the United States, to the point where many academic institutions viewed Qatar's largess in the most positive of lights as a nation fundamentally linked to the kind of genteel, slow-motion jihad that goes largely unnoticed in the fragrant steam of disarming diplomacy.

 

Since the U.S.-Israel aerial attacks on the Islamic Republic of Irana regime of which Qatar is a staunch ally and supporter, and Iran's reaction in closing the Strait of Hormuz to international shipping, penalizing global trade, Qatar has been cut off from the sea routes it so heavily depends upon to both export its natural resources and import products ranging from vehicles to food. Qatar's massive sovereign wealth fund of $600 billion bought it stakes in Heathrow Airport, London, to the Empire State Building in New York. The impact of the war's regional instability has even told on Qatar's booming tourism, not quite booming at present.

 

File photo of a gas platform in Qatar   Photo: QatarEnergy

 

"[For Qatar, gas shipments] are nothing short of foundational."

"That is why Qatar is quickly falling into a very challenging fiscal situation."

"If there's a migration out [a situation where the huge foreign work force leaves] then that starts to get scary."

Ahmed Helal, managing director, Asia Group 

Qatar's industrial center for gas production, Ras Laffan, has been closed down. Loading cranes stand paralyzed at the country's vast Hamad port south of the capital Doha. Qatar has for decades shipped LNG to every corner of the globe. Qatar stood out for most of 2010 as the wealthiest per capita country in the world. Its economy grew at an average annual rate of 13 percent from the 1990s to the 2010s. Qatar is heavily reliant on foreign workers to the extent that roughly 90 percent of its 3.2 million residents are non-citizens.

 

A day following the Iranian blockade of the Strait, QatarEnergy announced it was unable to fulfill its contracts. In another two weeks Qatar's Ras Laffan plant was struck by Iranian missiles and drones, damaging critical equipment, causing an immediate 17 percent production capacity reduction. Analysts estimate that billions of dollars in revenue has been lost by QatarEnergy since February 28, the start-date of the war. The damage sustained by the Ras Laffan plant will take years to correct. 

Tourism in Qatar   The State of Qatar

 

Qatar's plans to diversify beyond fossil fuels, to become a popular tourist destination, has also been harmed, with the number of international visitors plummeting. Multinational companies, reacting to regional instability have recalled their staff out of the country. Importing some 90 percent of its food, Qatar has been forced to rework its supply chains where fresh produce from Europe and grain from the Americas, once transported by sea, are now diverted to airfreight routes or trucked through Saudi Arabia. Government subsidies are meant to keep the cost of food down.  

 

Iran has attacked Gulf states in retaliation for Israeli and US bombing on its country   AFP via Getty Images