New Delhi: Twelve Indians and one Pakistani individual were killed when a ‘technical malfunction’ at the recently restarted Barzan gas facility at Qatar’s Ras Laffan industrial complex caused an explosion and fire yesterday.India’s embassy in Doha said Monday (June 22) evening that 12 Indian nationals were killed in the accident on Sunday. Earlier in the day Qatari officials had said that 13 persons from India and Pakistan had died but did not specify who hailed from where.Sixty-six others, including an unknown number of Indians, were injured by the incident, with the others hailing from Qatar, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania, Nigeria and Nepal, according to Doha. None of those hurt are in a grievous condition, said QatarEnergy, the firm that operates the Barzan plant.It added in a statement on Monday evening that the incident “was an operational accident and not sabotage or hostile in nature”.Production at Barzan was completely halted in December last year in view of “urgent maintenance requirements” and was restarted only on Friday, it said.No gas leak was reported after the incident and an enquiry is underway into what caused the explosion and fire.The incident could cause further chaos in global energy markets, as Qatar remains one of the world’s top natural gas producers. Doha shut down its production after Iran’s retaliatory blockade of the Strait of Hormuz meant it could not get shipments out to clients.Iran had hit the Ras Laffan complex in March, sparking a fire that caused “extensive” damage before it was extinguished, authorities said. Qatar had already halted production there because of Iranian attacks.At the time QatarEnergy’s CEO Saad Sherida al-Kaabi told Reuters that Iranian attacks would shave off some 17% off Qatar’s LNG export capacity and take offline gas production of 12.8 million tonnes per year.Barzan had a capacity of almost 39.6 million cubic metres of sales gas per day and Qatar used the plant primarily for local electricity generation and to power its crucial water desalination facilities.India relies on imports to meet about half of its natural gas requirement and 40% of these inflows came from Qatar, making it exposed to the disruption at Ras Laffan – which happens to be the world’s largest LNG export hub – and to Iran’s retaliatory blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.After the Iranian attacks on Qatar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had phoned Emir Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and expressed his solidarity with Doha in addition to “strongly [condemning] the attacks on the region’s energy infrastructure”. The PM, who also spoke with the leaders of Jordan and Oman, did not name Iran but the Qatari readout of their conversation said he “condemned the brutal Iranian aggression on the Ras Laffan industrial zone”.Reflecting the same position, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said India had earlier called for avoiding the targeting of civilian infrastructure, “including energy infrastructure”, across the region, and described the latest attacks on energy installations in multiple locations as “deeply disturbing”.That statement notably did not single out Iran, whose strikes on Gulf states New Delhi had condemned without taking names. At the same time, its reference to attacks “across the region” suggests a broader criticism that extends to all sides, including Israel’s strikes on Iran.With inputs from AP.