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Asif Iqbal
Doha
The year 2017 once again reinforced Qatar's position as the world's largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG), and despite the unjust blockade imposed by the Saudi-led bloc, the country fulfilled all its contracted shipments of oil and gas.
The largest LNG export market for Qatar was Asia with an export share of 65.3 percent, and the country's major Asian trading partners are South Korea, Japan, India and Taiwan.
As a reliable supplier of clean energy to the world, Qatar took all the measures to ensure continuous supply of energy to economies across the world.
"During the blockade we have never missed a single shipment of oil or gas to any of our consumer partners and this shows how committed Qatar is, not only to our economy and reliability, but also to consuming countries," Minister of Energy and Industry HE Mohammed bin Saleh Al Sada said recently.
"We made a lot of efforts not to miss any shipment and continue that reputation of utmost reliability," Al Sada noted. For example, Qatar didn't declare force majeure, a legal status protecting a party from liability if it can't fulfill a contract for reasons beyond its control, he pointed out.
According to Al Sada, the diplomatic feud with fellow OPEC members Saudi Arabia and the UAE has not hindered Qatar's energy production or expansion plans.
Qatar made its intentions to expand its energy production when Qatar Petroleum (QP) announced plans to boost gas production from its giant North Field, which it shares with Iran, by 30 percent, after new gas development.
The new project will raise Qatar's total LNG production capacity by 30 percent to 100 million tonnes from 77 million tonnes per year.
Making the announcement, QP Chief Executive Officer Saad Sherida al Kaabi had said,"After further assessment, we have decided that the best way to develop this huge project is by dedicating it to the production and export of liquefied natural gas. This project will strengthen our position as the world's largest LNG producer and exporter."
More recently, Luiz Pinto, a joint visiting fellow at the Brookings Doha Center and Qatar University, said he doesn't think Qatar's LNG and oil exports are going to be affected beyond small LNG shipments to Egypt and the region. He said tankers and LNG vessels still have access to Iranian and Omani waters.
Pinto had stated that even in the very unlikely event of Oman joining the embargo, Qatari shipments would still be able to pass through the Strait of Hormuz via the Iranian sector.
Pinto added that it is likely that Qatar would still have access to the Suez Canal allowing exports to Europe and that it would be able to keep on supplying gas to the UAE via the Dolphin pipeline, which connects Qatar's giant North Field with the UAE and Oman.
In yet another landmark step to reaffirm the country's pre-eminent position in the global LNG business, the merger of the two giant LNG producers, Qatargas and RasGas, to create a world-scale entity 'Qatargas', with a combined annual LNG production capacity of around 79mn tonnes, is in its final stages.
"The integration aims to create a truly unique global energy operator in terms of size, service and reliability," Kaabi noted.
Qatargas has a production capacity of 42 million tonnes per annum from its seven LNG trains and RasGas, which also has seven trains, has a capacity of approximately 37 million tonnes per annum.
The idea behind merger is to ensure best business model for the LNG business, Kaabi said, adding that the integration would lead to substantial savings in operating costs albeit that alone was not the key consideration.
Kaabi said,"The collective resources, talents and capabilities of two global leaders will be joined to create an even more effective and efficient organisation to uphold the best interest of Qatar, our customers and our shareholders."
Another milestone achieved by the country's energy sector was in meeting the demands of new customers from Bangladesh to Austria.
In September, Qatar sealed a landmark 15-year LNG sales and purchase agreement (SPA) with Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Corporation (Petrobangla). The agreement showed Qatar's continued leadership in bringing clean and reliable LNG to new markets and new customers.
In the same month, Qatar also signed a medium-term sales and purchase agreement with Turkey's BOTAf1'aa Petroleum Pipeline Corporation (BOTA'aa) to will deliver 1.5 million tonnes of LNG per annum for three years.
The deal with Turkey highlighted Qatarf0's ability to capture new opportunities reflecting the deep confidence of its customers around the world in its capabilities as a reliable supplier of LNG to satisfy their requirements.
More recently, the country inked a new SPA with OMV Gas Marketing & Trading GmbH (OMV). Under the terms of the agreement, Qatar will deliver up to 1.1 million tonnes of LNG per annum to the Austrian company for five years. With this deal, Qatar once again demonstrated its ability to capture new opportunities and expand its network of customers in an evolving market.
