Iranian attacks have knocked out ​17% of Qatar's ⁠liquefied natural gas (LNG) export capacity, causing an estimated $20 billion in lost annual revenue ‌and threatening supplies to Europe and Asia, QatarEnergy's CEO told Reuters on Thursday.

Saad al-Kaabi 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, he said.

"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," Kaabi said in an interview.

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 may 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.

EXXONMOBIL IMPACT AND BYPRODUCTS

U.S. oil major ExxonMobil is a partner in the damaged LNG facilities.

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

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%.

The damaged units cost approximately $26 billion to build, Kaabi said.

QatarEnergy had declared force majeure on its entire output of LNG after earlier attacks on ​its Ras ‌Laffan production hub.

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

(Reporting by Maha ​El Dahan, Andrew Mills and Yousef Saba; Editing by Louise Heavens)