RIYADH: Saudi Arabia expressed solidarity with Qatar after an explosion at a gas plant in Ras Laffan Industrial City, about 80 km north of Doha, resulted in several casualties and injuries on Sunday.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed on Monday the Kingdom’s sincere condolences to the families of the deceased, and wished a speedy recovery for the injured and the return of those missing, according to the Saudi Press Agency.
Qatari authorities announced that 13 people died, 66 others of various nationalities were injured, and 18 individuals went missing when an explosion took place at the Barzan plant in Ras Laffan on Sunday. Investigations are currently being conducted into a technical malfunction that caused an explosion at the site.
QatarEnergy said that an incident at the start-up of operations at the Barzan plant resulted in the explosion and fire, which was completely extinguished by Monday.
The Barzan plant supplies gas to the Qatari market. It has a capacity of almost 1.4 billion standard cubic feet of sales gas per day and is operated by QatarEnergy. The Doha-based Ministry of Interior confirmed that “no leak posing a risk to public safety or the environment was detected” after the incident.
