Qatar Daily News

Arab exports of natural gas have increased by more than 50% over the past four years with the majority of the increase coming from Qatar, according to official data.

The Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC), in its 2009 statistical report, said the Arab region’s total gas exports rose by 54.4% to 161.9 billion cu m in 2008 from 104.8 billion cu m in 2004.

Arab gas reserves stood at 53.7 trillion cu m at yearend 2008, according to the OAPEC report, which said that Qatar has nearly half the Arab gas potential, with more than 25 trillion cu m.

The OAPEC report said Algeria remained the leading Arab gas exporter in 2008, with its exports of 59.4 billion cu m accounting for more than a third of the total Arab gas sales.
Read the rest of this entry »

Soaring gas exports will ally with rebounding oil prices and production to catapult Qatar’s economy into double-digit growth in the next two years while its fiscal surplus will sharply widen, a key Saudi bank said yesterday.

The gross domestic product of the world’s third gas power is estimated to have swelled by 9.4 per cent this year despite the adverse impact of the global financial turmoil after leaping by nearly 14.3 per cent in 2008.

“The outlook for the next couple of years is bright. Three new 7.8 million tonnes a year LNG trains are expected to come on stream, while those which started operations during late 2009 should be producing at close to full capacity. Overall LNG output is expected to rise from about 40 million tonnes in 2009 to more than 75 million tonnes by 2012, with much of the increase occurring in 2010,” the Saudi American Bank Group (Samba) said in a study.
Read the rest of this entry »

A senior official with China’s largest state-own gas company said here Saturday that China planned to import more liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatar in the coming years to feed the huge demand of domestic market.

Fu Chengyu, general manager of China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC), said in the opening ceremony for CNOOC’s office in Doha that his company has secured LNG supply of 13 million tons a year up to date coming from the locally produced and import from Russia and Kazakhstan.

“But this can’t satisfy the market demand. We plan to import 60 million tons of LNG each year by the year of 2020. We hope part of this additional volume come from Qatar.”

CNOOC is the leading LNG company in China and is also the only company with facilities and capacity to receive LNG in China.
Read the rest of this entry »

Four new liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers built for Qatargas by Samsung Heavy Industries are docked at the Samsung Heavy Industries shipyard on Goje Island for their naming ceremony yesterday. The ships – three of which are the world’s largest – can sail at a maximum speed of 19.5 knots. A total of seven LNG carriers ordered by Qatar from Samsung and Hyundai Heavy Industries were named over the past few days and three more are to be formally given their titles.

Qatari Oil Minister Abdullah Al-Attiyah said Qatar would reach its target LNG capacity of 77 million tonnes per year by 2012, a newspaper reported

Attiyah said Qatar’s gas production currently stood at 31 million tonnes a year and would increase by 46 million tonnes over the course of the next three years, Al-Watan reported.

The oil minister had recently said the world’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter would ramp up production by 2010, while officials at state gas companies had said Qatar would not reach the 77-million tonne target until 2012.

The minister also said Opec was becoming accustomed to the rise and fall in oil prices but that there were expectations conditions in the market would stabilise in 2010, Al-Watan said. Reuters

Sustained investment in LNG production since the past 20 years will help Qatar continue a growth of 8.5 per cent in 2009 as it tackles an “entrenched” inflation and continues to witness a net rise in the number of immigrants, a new study said.

London-based Standard Chartered bank, in its country briefing, said Qatar will continue to diversify its economy. “We expect Qatar to continue investing in its economy despite the current slump in commodity prices. Qatar is now reaping the rewards of its continued investment in major liquid natural gas developments throughout the 1990s despite depressed oil prices,” the report highlighted.

Qatar, which is currently producing 30 million tonnes per annum of LNG, plans to increase it to 77 million tonnes per annum in 2010.

Its LNG production capacity is much ahead of other gas majors Russia and Iran. It recently edged past competitors like Indonesia, Australia and Malaysia.
Read the rest of this entry »

Trade between Qatar and South Korea grew 69.2% to US$16.3 billion last year, data issued by Korea International Trade Association said.

South Korean imports from Qatar stood at US$14.4 billion last year, up 70% from 2007. South Korean exports to Qatar totalled US$1.9 billion last year, up 63.4% on 2007.

South Korea’s main import commodities from Qatar are natural gas, crude oil and liquefied petroleum gas.
Last year, South Korea imported LNG worth US$7.2 billion from Qatar, up 65% on 2007. South Korea imported crude oil worth US$6.2 billion and LPG worth US$600 million from Qatar last year, showing an increase of 85.7% and 88.6% respectively on 2007.

South Korea imported naphtha worth QAR175 million from Qatar last year. Fertiliser imports from Qatar to South Korea totalled US$97 million and petrochemical products US$59 million last year.
Read the rest of this entry »

Qatar’s economy continued its rapid climb and jumped by nearly 59 per cent in the first nine months of 2008 despite a sharp decline in oil prices in the last weeks of that period, official figures showed yesterday.

The Gulf country’s gross domestic product stood at QR107.79 billion (Dh109bn) in the first nine months of 2008 compared with nearly QR66.56bn (Dh67.5bn) in the same period of 2007, showed the figures by Qatar’s Statistics Authority of the Government Planning Council.

The GDP even recorded better quarterly performance, leaping by around 63 per cent in the third quarter of 2008 over the same period of 2007.

Oil and gas contributed by 73 per cent of the GDP growth in the first nine months of 2008 while gas alone accounted for nearly half, the report showed.
Read the rest of this entry »