Qatar Energy

Undertaking a large-scale expansion of its chemicals industry, Qatar is aiming to increase the value of hydrocarbons-related exports. Production of chemicals and petrochemicals will more than double by 2020, reaching 23m tonnes per year (tpy), up from 9.3m tonnes at present, the nation’s minister of energy and industry, Mohamed bin Saleh Al Sada, announced in mid-January.

The announcement of a major downstream project has been the highlight of a busy period for Qatar’s hydrocarbons sector. An agreement, signed on December 4 between Saleh Al Sada, the minister of energy and industry, and Shell’s CEO, Peter Voser, lays out the commercial principles and scope of a proposed petrochemicals complex in Ras Laffan Industrial City in northeast Qatar.

Having established itself as the world’s leading supplier of liquefied natural gas (LNG), Qatar is now looking to bring a new processing facility online to support a projected jump in local industrial activity.

Thanks in large part to the number of hydrocarbons expansion projects that have taken place over the past few years, Qatar is expected to see sustained economic growth for the foreseeable future. According to an economic bulletin released by Saudi Arabia’s Samba Financial Group in late March, the country could see GDP growth in excess of 19% by the end of 2011. Similarly, nominal GDP is forecast to grow by 22.4%, from $122.3bn at the end of 2010 to $149.7bn by the end of 2011. These gains can be attributed primarily to the country’s rapidly expanding energy sector, which saw growth of nearly 36% in the third quarter of 2010, due to increased production and rising oil prices.