Qatar Daily News

Royal Dutch Shell PLC’s two mammoth natural-gas projects in Qatar will increase the company’s cash flow by $4 billion a year when they start up in 2011 and give a big boost to the company’s output, said Peter Voser, Shell’s chief executive.

Speaking to reporters in London, Mr. Voser said the Pearl gas-to-liquids plant and Qatargas 4, a liquefied-natural-gas development, would deliver 350,000 barrels a day of oil—some 10% of Shell’s current output.

“These projects combined will have a substantial impact on Shell’s world-wide production [and] generate sustained positive cash flows for decades to come,” he said. Income from the Qatar ventures will underpin Shell’s next wave of new investments, he said.

Mr. Voser was speaking after Shell took analysts round Pearl and Qatargas 4, two projects that are vital to the company’s growth strategy. With a price tag of $18 billion to $19 billion, Pearl—which will convert Qatari natural gas into diesel and other high-value oil products—is the biggest single project in the global oil industry and is also the world’s largest GTL development.
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Qatar Petroleum International, a unit of the emirate’s state-run oil company, plans to build two petrochemical plants costing about $9.8 billion in Asia by 2015 to tap demand in the world’s fastest-growing region.

Qatar will partner Cnooc Ltd. and a Chinese petrochemicals maker to construct a $5.8 billion plant in China’s Hainan province, Chief Executive Officer Nasser al-Jaidah said in an interview in Tokyo yesterday. Another project in Vietnam will cost as much as $4 billion and both ventures will use Qatari liquefied petroleum gas to produce chemicals, he said.

“There is huge potential for growth in Asia, especially China,” al-Jaidah said. “We can hit two birds with one stone — tap the markets and exit our product,” he said, without disclosing Qatar’s share of investment in the venture.
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German rail and logistics group Deutsche Bahn is set to sign a 17 billion euro ($25 billion) contract with Qatar, German transport minister Peter Ramsauer said on Friday.

The two parties plan to sign the agreement on Sunday, Ramsauer said at a meeting of transport ministers, adding the deal included building a connection to Doha airport.
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French construction firm Bouygues Construction said on Monday it had won a 950-million-euro (1.4 billion-dollar) contract in the Gulf state of Qatar to build an office and shopping complex.

It said its subsidiary Bouygues Batiment International would build nine 18-52-storey office towers, a five-star hotel, a shopping mall, a conference center, a mosque and parking garages on the site, located in the Qatari capital Doha.
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Business entities in Qatar will be required to pay an annual tax of 10% of their revenues under a new law issued yesterday by HH the Heir Apparent and Deputy Emir, HH Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.

The tax law will be levied on the revenues of business activities, contracts – which are being partly or wholly implemented – properties, including the sales of stakes in the shareholding companies or the privately-owned companies whose assets are mainly comprised of properties. Rrevenues of the natural sources excavation or exploration in the state and the loan interest rates obtained within the state are also taxable.

The law will take effect as of January 1, 2010.
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Qatar Airways, Worlds Five-Star Airline, and prestigious law firm DLA Piper, partnering with GoldenNetworking.com’s Middle East Leaders Forum 2009, November 20th, in New York City.

Qatar Airways, Worlds Five-Star airline, and prestigious law firm DLA Piper are pleased to partner with GoldenNetworking.com’s Middle East Leaders Forum 2009 (www.MiddleEastLeadersForum.com), November 20th, in New York City. Middle East Leaders Forum 2009 will congregate businessmen, professionals, entrepreneurs and academics, from the Middle East and Western countries who are interested in meeting the challenges and exploiting the opportunities presented
by the economies of the Arabian Gulf.

Qatar and India signed a slew of bilateral trade agreements at the second meeting of Qatari-Indian Ministerial Committee held here yesterday. The Minister of State for International Cooperation and Acting Minister of Business and Trade, H E Dr Khalid bin Mohammad Al Attiyah led the discussions on behalf of Qatar. The Indian delegation was led by T K A Nair, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister.

Talking to reporters, Al Attiyah said the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and India would sign the proposed free trade agreement in the immediate future. He said bilateral trade between India and Qatar has been steadily growing over the last few years. “The trade volume rose by 14.3 percent in 2008 to reach $3.7bn. This indicates the expected increase in trade in the current year”, he said.
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Under the title of “Advances in Medical Genetics”, the second Qatar Genetics Symposium participants have discussed prevalence of genetic diseases in the Middle East and strategies for their treatment and prevention. The event, which is sponsored by Hamad Medical Corporation and Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, brought together yesterday a number of experts and scientists from Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Germany.

In a speech on the occasion, Managing Director of Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), Dr Hanan Al Kuwari said: We are living in a fascinating era where every month, unique and outstanding achievements are announced, in medicine in general and in medical genetics in particular.

He added: The past year has been marked by major achievements in clinical and metabolic genetics services at Hamad Medical Corporation by establishing Qatar Medical Genetic Centre. Dr Kuwari added that HMC has invited the best speakers to provide the latest advances in the area of medical genetics, with focus on the prevalence and prevention strategies of genetic diseases among Middle Eastern populations including the Gulf countries.
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Movie star Robert de Niro presented the top Audience Awards at the first Doha Tribeca film festival to a Palestinian film and to a documentary made in Qatar.

The 50,000-dollar award for best film went on Sunday night to “Team Qatar” a documentary directed by Britain’s Liz Mermin that tells the story of a group of high school students taking part in an international debate.

“Pomegranates and Myrrh” directed by Palestinian director Najwa Najjar was also awarded 50,000 dollars after being chosen by the audience as the best Arab movie in the festival, co-organised by New York’s Tribeca festival.
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Qatar Holding, the investment arm of the Qatar Investment Authority, plans to open an office in China to boost its investments in Asia, a newspaper reported on Monday.

“Asia is a growing market for us — we are really serious about funding the right opportunity there,” The Peninsula quoted chief executive officer Ahmad Al-Sayed as saying in comments to the Financial Times.

The Qatar Investment Authority, the Gulf state’s sovereign wealth fund, has an office in India.

Qatar’s economy is expected to grow in real terms by 7 to 9 percent in 2009. Opec member Qatar is the world’s top exporter of liquefied natural gas.
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