Cyber attack takes Qatar's RasGas offline

RasGas, the second largest producer of Qatari LNG after Qatar Petroleum, has been hit with an "unknown virus" which has taken the company offline.

A RasGas spokesperson confirmed that “an unknown virus has affected its office systems" since Monday 27 August.

RasGas confirmed the situation by fax yesterday. “RasGas is presently experiencing technical issues with its office computer systems,” said the RasGas fax seen by Oil & Gas Middle East, dated 28 August. “We will inform you when our system is back up and running.”

Emails to verified addresses at RasGas bounced back with a permanent delivery failure error message. and the RasGas website (www.rasgas.com) is down.

The RasGas spokesman said the virus has “no impact whatsoever on operations in Ras Laffan Industrial City and there are no issues with cargo deliveries.”

“Everyone is reporting to work as normal,” the spokesman said. “We are working with ICT Qatar to resolve the situation as soon as possible.”

The news follows a malware attack against Saudi Aramco on 15 August which forced the world's largest oil company to take down its company-wide office systems for 12 days.

RasGas, a joint venture between QP and ExxonMobil, comprises seven giant LNG process trains in Ras Laffan, Qatar. The company exports 36.3m tonnes a year of LNG, most of which under long-term contracts with customers in Korea, India, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Taiwan, and the Americas. The company us also responsible for around 10% of global helium production.