Oil and Gas constitute the backbone of Qatar’s Economy. The State of Qatar exerts efforts to diversify its sources to alleviate the country’s dependence on these natural resources of crude Oil which amounts about (850 thousand barrels per day, and Gas about (18 billion cube foot per day) produced from the North Field which holds Gas reserves of about (380 trillion cube foot) and associated gas.
The Qatari leadership endeavors to increase production capacity of the liquefied natural Gas (LNG) to be more than (60 million Ton per year), knowing that the current production is (18 million ton/day); the majority of the GDP relies on Oil and Gas and the relevant industrial activities.
Established in 1974, the government-owned Qatar Petroleum is responsible for all oil and gas industry in Qatar. Oil is produced from onshore and offshore fields, the most important of which are:
Dukhan onshore field; Al Idd Al Sharqi; Maydan Mahzam, Bul Hanain, Al Bunduk, Al Shaheen, Al Rayan, Al Khalij, Al Karkara and offshore Tabakat (A).
Discovered in 1971, this field lies mainly offshore to the northeast of the Qatar peninsula under water depths ranging from 15 to 70 meters. It covers about 6000 square kilometers, almost half the area of mainland Qatar. NGF is the largest single concentration of non-associated natural gas in the world with total proven reserves of more than 900 trillion cubic feet, representing 20% of world total, and making Qatar the third country in the world with the largest reserves of natural gas after Russia and Iran.
The North Gas Field constitutes catalyst for investments in gas production and utilization due to the abundance of natural gas one site and favorable geographical and weather conditions that facilitates production and reduce costs in comparison to other sites in the world. Based on those huge reserves of the North Gas Field and advantages of gas as a clean, safe and long life source of energy, QP formulated a phased strategic plan to develop the field and rationalize the utilization of its resources to secure new financial returns through exporting gas in liquefied form of through pipelines, establishing new industries based on gas and building new port at Ras Laffan.