Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said Qatar would resume normal liquefied natural gas production “within a few weeks,” the Financial Times reported on Wednesday. QatarEnergy suspended LNG production after the US and Israel launched their war on Iran on February 28 following a drone attack on its huge Ras Laffan plant. Establishing a hotline between the US and Iran is essential to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, he told the FT in an interview. Sheikh Mohammed told the FT that the hotline agreed by the warring parties at their talks in Switzerland was needed to counter “disinformation” and ensure co-ordination while mines were cleared from the crucial waterway. Sheikh Mohammed said Qatar had already started to prepare its tankers after the warring parties signed a memorandum of understanding last week. “Within a few weeks, production will come back to normal, except the damaged facility,” Sheikh Mohammed said. “Our teams have been mobilized already for a few weeks. QatarEnergy is preparing for operations to come back to normal as soon as the situation in the strait normalizes.” Qatar, which alongside Pakistan mediated high-level talks between the US and Iran in Switzerland on Sunday, also expects shipping in the strait to begin to return to normal within the first few weeks of the deal. But Sheikh Mohammed cautioned that state-owned QatarEnergy would lift force majeure only “once the company sees they have addressed all the issues, and it’s safe to operate.”
