Qatar’s winning bid to host the 2022 World Cup could compel it to lift its North Field gas reservoir development moratorium due to the huge amount of electricity the event is likely to require to be generated according to a HSBC report.
“There are likely to be increased power needs due to the influx of labour and later air-conditioning requirement for the new hotels,” HSBC analysts Raj Sinha and John Lomax said in a report dated December 3, Bloomberg reported.
The gas-rich gulf state – which holds the world’s third-largest gas reserves, beat fellow World Cup bidders US, Japan, South Korea and Australia to host the prestigious sporting event.
According to the US Energy Information Administration, all of Qatar’s power plants are currently natural gas-fired. The country has been studying the viability of exploiting the North Field since halting development there in 2005.
Saad al-Kaabi, director of oil and gas ventures at state-owned Qatar Petroleum, said last year the moratorium wouldn’t be lifted before 2014, if at all, reported the newswire.
“Bringing forward capacity additions could encourage the moratorium on gas exploration to be lifted, as additional feedstock is required,” HSBC said.
According to the just-published Oxford Business Group’s ‘The Report: Qatar 2010’ country report, the country is on a drive to diversify its sources of energy into areas such as solar power as part of a broader aim to diversify its economy.
The North Field contains reserves of about 900 trillion cubic feet.
