Qatar’s LNG challenge

A new report entitled ‘Inside Oil & Gas Qatar’, has investigated the challenges facing Qatar as it implements its National Vision 2030.

Increasing demand for LNG worldwide will be the main challenge for Qatar’s strategy to diversify its economy away from upstream oil and gas, and make its hydrocarbon development more sustainable.

Seyed Mohammad Hossein Adeli, Secretary General of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF), said: "According to some reports, the share of Qatar's LNG exports to Asia reached 73.5% in January 2013, a sharp jump of over 30% compared with 56.4% in 2012 […] This major shift is driven by two important factors, one of which is the surprising increase in oil and gas production in a few countries such as the US, Canada and Iraq." This has served to lower the demand for LNG deliveries in Europe and the US. The second has been the retreat from nuclear power following the Fukushima incident in Japan.

Qatargas's CEO, Sheikh Khalid Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, believes that LNG demand in Asian markets will rise from 237 million t in 2013 to over 450 million t by 2025. "This growing appetite for LNG will need to be matched by production capacity additions over and above the LNG supply, which will come from projects currently under construction in the US and Australia. Based on our projections, another 150 million tpy of additional non-FIDed LNG supply capacity is needed to meet global demand by 2025."

The report suggests that the biggest issue for Qatar to remain the world's largest exporter of LNG will be tight supply, rather than a challenge from North America.

Hamad Rashid Al-Mohannadi, CEO of RasGas, added: "Even if an optimistic view is taken on the number of LNG projects that will go to completion, the LNG market will continue to be tight in the short and medium term as demand growth outpaces supply."

The report also looks at the way that leading Qatari companies are internationalising as part of a diversification and sustainability drive. Nasser Khalil Al-Jaidah, CEO of Qatar Petroleum International (QPI), said: "International growth is the only possible future for the Qatari oil and gas industry, having almost reached the potential of the activity that has taken place over the last two decades […] In this time, Qatar has worked hard to consolidate domestically, but now expansion is inevitable, as QP has grown to become one of the world's largest LNG suppliers. In order to reach its potential, QP must seek new markets, make new partnerships, review the full value chain and plug the gaps wherever they appear."

The ‘Inside Oil and Gas Qatar’ report is available as a free download from EnergyBoardroom.com

Adapted from press release by Callum O'Reilly

Read the article online at: https://www.lngindustry.com/liquefaction/28112014/qatar-lng-challenge-1883/