Qatar: Advantages in Adversity

Qatar has 24.5 tcm (865 tcf) of gas reserves, most of it located in the offshore North Field. The North Field is the world’s largest non-associated gasfield. According to the Qatar National Bank, the available reserves allow Qatar to maintain its current production for another 138 years. Natural gas production in Qatar stood at 175.7 bcm (6.2 tcf) in 2017. Qatar Petroleum manages all of the country’s hydrocarbons activities.

Qatar holds oil reserves of 25.7 billion barrels. Almost all of its oilfields are offshore, the only exception being the Dukhan field. The country produced 1.92 million boepd of oil and liquids in 2017, and its R/P ratio is 36.1 years. Most of Qatar’s condensates and NGLs are produced from the North Field. In 2016, QP announced it had awarded a 30% stake in a new 25-year contract to Total to operate Qatar’s 300,000-bopd Al Shaheen oilfield. QP will retain 70% in the new joint venture.  Total plans to invest more than USD 2 billion between 2017 and 2022 to develop the field. The super-major took over operatorship from Maersk Oil in July 2017, with a new company, North Oil Company, created to represent the joint venture.

The country has made a considerable investment in natural gas liquefaction capacity, bringing 14 trains on line between 1999 and 2011. The trains, operated by Qatargas, have a combined nameplate production capacity of 78 million tonnes of LNG per year. They exported 78.4 million tonnes in 2015.

More than 90% of Qatar’s LNG production is committed through supply purchase agreements  between 2014 and 2021. Its LNG exports have traditionally been shipped under long-term oil-indexed contracts, but the emirate is delivering more and more of its gas under short-term contracts and on spot markets as many traditional customers are aiming at diversifying import sources in light of the growth of the global LNG market. In March 2018, QP awarded Chiyoda a FEED contract for three LNG trains, each with a capacity of 7.8 million tonnes per year, to service an expansion of the North Field development. First LNG is expected in 2023.