World leader in natural gas

International

World leader in natural gas

Qatar’s modest history of fishing and pearling was forever changed in the mid-20th century with the discovery of oil reserves. First discovered in 1939 but delayed by World War II, oil made it possible for Qatar to begin expanding and modernizing in the 1950s. Qatar joined OPEC in 1961. Oil paved the way to a variety of opportunities and in 1971 Qatar became an independent state.

It was that same year, 1971, when exploration engineers discovered natural gas off Qatar’s northeast coast. At the time no one realized just how important this find would prove to be. Over the next 14 years multiple appraisal wells were drilled, fifteen in all. In 1985 it was established that Qatar’s North Field was the largest non-associated natural gas field in the world. It was determined to have recoverable reserves of more than 900 million standard cubic feet. To put that in perspective, the North Field made up more than 10% of the entire world’s known reserves. The only countries with larger proven gas reserves were Russia and Iran.

The North Field lies off the northeast shore of the Qatar peninsula and covers a massive underground area, equivalent to about half the land area of the State of Qatar.

QatarGas, established in 1984, is the entity that develops, produces, and markets hydrocarbons produced from the North Field. It is processed to produce LNG, GTL, NGL and other gas-related industries, in addition to pipeline gas for export.

Today, QatarGas is unparalleled in the industry in terms of reliability, size and service. It operates 14 Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) gas trains with a total annual production capacity of 77 million tons. That provides about one third of the global market of LNG and makes QatarGas the largest LNG producer in the world.

In an effort to ensure their long-term global gas position, Qatar has plans to boost its liquefied natural gas production to as much as 100 million tons annually. It exports gas at a daily rate of about 11 billion cu ft. The country’s proven gas reserves remain at an estimated 880 trillion cu ft. meaning Qatar will continue to be a world leader in gas sales for one hundred years or more.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/jun/4/i-appworld-leader-in-natural-gas/

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