Qatar's Energy Industry

Qatar: Advantages in Adversity

Qatar’s oil and gas industry has had a significant impact on the nation since oil was discovered in the mid-20th century. In 1985, Qatar’s North field was declared the largest non-associated gasfield in the world with recoverable reserves amounting to 10% of all recoverable reserves worldwide.

Hydrocarbons activities and affiliated operations form the majority of the peninsular nation’s economic backbone and make up around 70% of government revenues. Gas operations have propelled the country’s GDP per capita into the top 50 globally. QatarEnergy is the state-owned entity involved in managing all oil and gas activity in the country.

The country has made considerable investments in producing LNG since it began in the 1990s, with the country now one of the leading LNG exporters worldwide along with the US and Australia. LNG export from Qatar has traditionally been done through long-term oil-indexed contracts, though short-term contracts are being made as the LNG customers diversify import sources. The traditional target market for the country’s product is Asia, although interest in Qatari LNG from Europe has grown.

While the nation’s power generation capacity has traditionally come from fossil fuels, the government has made ambitious strides to develop renewable capacity, particularly solar. The state has set ambitious targets to have its electricity derived from non-gas sources by 2030 under the Qatar National Vision 2030 initiative.