For several years, Qatar has worked on cementing its position as one of the leading LNG suppliers of the world.
But on the night of December 18 as the world watched Qatar’s Emir wrapping the ‘bisht’ — a black cloak worn as a symbol of respect — around football star Lionel Messi, Qatar became the center of the world, pulling off a feat none of its neighbors in the Arab world has managed to achieve.
Since the country was awarded the tournament in 2010, it has invested at least $200 billion into new infrastructure, including $6.5 billion on stadiums and facilities, which was largely funded by LNG export revenues from Qatar’s state-owned giant QatarEnergy.
Additionally, the recent energy crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has led to soaring demand for Qatari LNG, leading to a whopping rise in state revenues and cementing QatarEnergy’s position as one of the most important resource companies in the world.
But the state-owned energy company wants to focus on international expansion, and hosting the most popular sporting event on earth has put Qatar in the spotlight like never before.
If chapter one and chapter two of the company’s evolution focused on developing and maximising domestic gas production for export, “chapter three” will be about QatarEnergy’s international expansion, Kaabi told the Financial Times in a recent interview.
QatarEnergy has built a sprawling exploration portfolio over the past decade that includes stakes in projects in Brazil, Canada, the US Gulf of Mexico, Guyana, and the MENA region.
The company aims to raise its production outside of Qatar from 45,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day to 500,000 boe/d by 2030. Domestically, Qatar produces more than 5 million boe/d, including some oil and a vast amount of LNG.