Qatar just printed its widest quarterly shortfall in almost a decade as gas income dried up. The finance ministry, posting on X, put the April to June deficit at 21.2 billion riyals, or $5.8 billion. That is the biggest gap since the end of 2016 and nearly twice the previous quarter's 10.3 billion riyals.
After hostilities broke out in late February and Iran shut the Strait of Hormuz, Qatar's tankers were cut off from their primary pathway to customers, the majority of whom are in Asia. Unlike Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Qatar lacks a backup corridor that skirts the strait. Before the conflict, the country accounted for about 20% of global LNG supply. Since then, shipments have fallen from roughly 20 million tons per quarter a year earlier to below 2 million in the April to June 2026 window.
The crisis has also been physical. Iranian drones and missiles have repeatedly hit Qatar, causing damage running into the billions of dollars. In March, a drone attack compelled QatarEnergy to close the Ras Laffan export complex for the first time in close to 30 years of operations.
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On the fiscal side, non-energy income almost quintupled from the first to the second quarter to 25 billion riyals, cushioning the blow from lost petroleum revenue. Even so, total revenue slid about 30% to 25.6 billion riyals, while expenditure dipped 2.6% to 46.9 billion.
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