Iranian attacks ‌have knocked out 17% of Qatar's liquefied natural gas (LNG) export capacity, forcing supply disruptions to Europe and Asia and triggering force majeure declarations, said QatarEnergy's CEO and state minister for energy affairs on Thursday (March 19).

The attacks damaged key facilities, cutting 12.8 million tonnes per year of output for up to five years and causing an estimated $20 billion in annual losses, stated Saad Al Kaabi while speaking to Reuters.

He said two of Qatar's 14 LNG trains and one of its two gas-to-liquids (GTL) facilities were damaged in ​the unprecedented strikes. The repairs will sideline 12.8 million tons per year of LNG for three to five years.

Damage to two LNG trains and a gas-to-liquids facility will remove 12.8 million tonnes per year of output for up to five years, he added.

The disruption also affects condensate, LPG and helium exports, with broader implications for industries ranging from manufacturing to food services.

"I never in my wildest dreams would have thought that Qatar would be - Qatar and the region - ⁠in such an attack, especially from a brotherly Muslim country in the month of Ramadan, attacking us in this way," said Kaabi said.

Hours earlier ​Iran had aimed a series of attacks at Gulf oil and gas facilities after Israeli attacks on its own gas infrastructure.

State-owned QatarEnergy will have to ​declare force majeure on long-term contracts for up to five years for LNG supplies bound for Italy, Belgium, South Korea, and China due to the two damaged trains, Kaabi said.

"I mean, these are long-term contracts that we have to declare force majeure. We already declared, but that was a shorter term. Now it's whatever the period ​is," he said.

QatarEnergy had declared force majeure on its entire output of LNG, after earlier attacks on its Ras Laffan production ​hub, which came under fire again on Wednesday.

"For production to restart, first we need hostilities to cease," he told Reuters.

US oil major ExxonMobil is a partner in ‌the damaged ⁠LNG facilities, while Shell is a partner in the damaged GTL facility, which will take up to a year to repair.

Texas-based ExxonMobil holds a 34% stake in LNG train S4 and a 30% stake in train S6, Kaabi said.

Train S4 impacts supplies to Italy's Edison and EDFT in Belgium, while Train S6 impacts South Korea's Kogas, EDFT and Shell in China.

Production cannot resume until hostilities cease, Kaabi added.

According to him, the scale of the damage from the attacks has set the region back 10 ​to 20 years.

"And of ​course, this is a safe ⁠haven for a lot of people, to have a safe place to stay and so on. And that image, I think, has been shaken."

The fallout extends well beyond LNG. Qatar's exports of condensate will drop by ​around 24%, while liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) will fall 13%. Helium output will fall 14%, and naphtha and ​sulphur will both drop ⁠by 6%.

Those losses have implications ranging from LPG used in restaurants in India to South Korea's chipmakers which use helium, stated Kaabi.

The damaged units cost approximately $26 billion to build, he added.