DOHA (Dispatches) -- QatarEnergy is negotiating with several U.S. producers to secure multi-year contracts to purchase liquefied natural gas (LNG) to replace capacity lost due to attacks during the terrorist war on Iran, Reuters reported, citing trading and industry sources.
The Qatari state firm is reportedly in discussions with U.S. firms Venture Global, Cheniere, and Woodside to secure gas supplies needed to meet its commitments to Asian buyers, including in South Korea, Taiwan, Bangladesh, India and Japan.
QatarEnergy is seeking contracts that will last until 2031, as damage from missile and drone attacks on American targets in the island Persian Gulf nation is expected to take years to repair.
QatarEnergy CEO Saad al-Kaabi said in March that lost production of 12.8 million tons per year of LNG capacity could take three to five years to restore.
In the early days of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, Qatar’s Ras Laffan facility suffered damage from retaliatory strikes after Iranian gas plants were attacked in strikes originating from Qatar and other Persian Gulf countries. 
Gas production was halted as a result, forcing QatarEnergy to issue force majeure notices stating it was not responsible for meeting its contractual commitments to buyers.
Before the war, Qatar was the world’s second-largest LNG producer, behind the U.S.
Qatar is home to the U.S. military’s Al-Udeid Air Base, where U.S. warplanes and refueling and transport aircraft are stationed.
Two of Qatar’s 14 liquid natural gas (LNG) trains and a gas-to-liquids (GTL) facility were damaged by retaliatory strikes, the sources told Reuters.
QatarEnergy has been purchasing LNG cargoes on spot markets as a stopgap measure to help meet commitments to its Asian clients, which typically purchase 80 percent of Qatar’s supply.
QatarEnergy’s trading arm is seeking to lock in contracts for 2–3 million metric tons of LNG per year, one of the sources said. “They will have to buy whatever they can get their hands on,” another source stated.
Qatar’s pursuit of long-term LNG contracts from U.S. firms signals that Doha “considers the disruption of the Strait of Hormuz may prove longer lasting, and the damage to Qatari LNG infrastructure has been more extensive and may take longer to repair than initially hoped,” stated Saul Kavonic of the energy research and advisory firm MST Marquee.
The disruptions in the supply of Qatari LNG are causing some of Doha’s Asian buyers to consider alternatives.
“Some market participants are stress-testing scenarios in which no Qatari gas is available,” Reuters wrote, citing a fifth source.