Qatar Daily News

Royal Dutch Shell Plc spent $19 billion, triple the original estimate, to build the world’s largest gas-to-liquids plant. Now, it’s pay-off time and the company says the project may generate $6 billion a year.

Shell needs the plant, known as Pearl, to bolster output, which fell for a seventh year in 2009 in part because rebel violence hampered oil ventures in Nigeria. Qatar, the arid Gulf state that’s become the world’s biggest exporter of gas on ships, may account for 10 percent of the company’s production after Pearl and a liquefied natural gas project start deliveries next year.
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Qatar plans to buy land in Georgia for corn cultivation and to begin this year importing as many as 70,000 sheep a year from the former Soviet republic, Georgian Agriculture Minister Bakur Kvezereli said.

“They’re interested in buying land in Georgia for agriculture and are also interested in importing our vegetables and sheep,” Kvezereli said in an interview late yesterday on a flight from Doha to the Georgian capital Tbilisi. “They’re willing to pay as much as $250 per sheep.”

Kvezereli accompanied Georgian Prime Minister Nika Gilauri to Doha this week for talks with government officials and business leaders, following President Mikheil Saakashvili’s trip to the country last November.
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Qatar Petroleum and Exxon Mobil Corporation today announced the Al Khaleej Gas-Phase 2 (AKG-2) project, with 1,250 million cubic feet per day (mcfd) of sales gas capacity, initiated operations in December 2009.

“This is another major achievement to ensure the optimal use of Qatar’s hydrocarbon resources to meet increasing local demand and contribute to further development of Qatar’s industrial base. This project is helping to support the country’s rapid economic expansion.”

The new facilities are designed to meet the growing demand of local industries. Combined with Al Khaleej Gas-Phase 1 (AKG-1), which began production in 2005, AKG will have a total capacity of 2,000 mcfd, making it the largest source of domestic gas supply in the State of Qatar.
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Microsoft and Qatar Telecom (Qtel) have signed a broad strategic alliance to develop integrated cloud-based services, software applications, mobile services and devices over Qtel’s converged networks. The partnership aims to expand Qtel’s service portfolio including corporate and consumer-focused applications, with the first resultant products planned to be on the market by mid-2010.
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Qatar and Turkey are holding preliminary talks to install gas pipeline between Doha and Istanbul, says the visiting Turkish Premier.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a local Arabic daily in an interview that Qatar and Turkey share similar views on key international and regional issues.

The Turkish Prime Minister, who is in Doha to participate in the ongoing US Islamic World Forum, hailed Qatari efforts to find peaceful solution to the Darfur crisis, indicating that Ankara plans to launch development projects like schools, hospitals and water wells in Darfur region.

Telecom equipment vendor Nokia Siemens Networks said Tuesday it has signed a framework agreement to provide infrastructure technology and services for Qatar-based communications group Qtel International.

As part of the agreement, Nokia Siemens Networks is deploying an energy-efficient radio access solution, based on a Flexi Base Station, that will offer Read the rest of this entry »

Costa Rica was the fourth and final stop Monday on Qatar Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani’s tour through Latin America, in a visit that included Argentina, Venezuela and Brazil.

The visit – the first by an Arab head of state to this Central American country – is expected to bring Qatari investment in fields such as technology, science and the economy in Costa Rica.

“It’s a new window we are opening for the Arab world; with a country that is very wealthy and with a personal friend of mine and a friend of Costa Rica,” said Costa Rica President Oscar Arias.
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Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister of Turkey, used his appearance in Abu Dhabi yesterday at the World Future Energy Summit to promote the ambitious project, which could supply gas to Europe through a Turkish hook-up with the proposed Nabucco pipeline.

Mr Erdogan said the Qatar-Turkey pipeline project was “important” for his country, and “will provide remarkable opportunities for Gulf countries”.

He also described last year’s signing of an inter-governmental agreement on the Nabucco pipeline as the year’s “most significant development” for Turkey’s energy strategy.

The transit agreement between five EU states and Turkey cleared the way for a final investment decision on the EU-backed project to reduce European dependence on Russian gas.