The story of Qatar's energy sector is one of potential very much fulfilled. A sleepy backwater until its wealth began to explode as a result of its astute liquefied natural gas (LNG) development strategy, Qatar is, on a per capita basis, by far the Gulf Cooperation Council's leading hydrocarbons exporter. Qatar has the world's third largest gas reserves, after only Russia and Iran, at 25,400 billion cubic metres, or 13.5% of the global total. Discovered in the 1980s, the huge offshore North Field gives Qatar energy revenue security such that a moratorium on further development, imposed in 2005, is unlikely to be removed until around 2016, if ever.MONEY WELL SPENT Qatar has spent tens of billions of dollars in the past 15 years to develop its LNG and downstream petrochemical industries, now among the world's largest. In December, it celebrated completion of its 77.1 mtpa (million tonnes per annum) LNG liquefaction capacity build-out by two of Qatar Petroleum's major subsidiaries, Qatar Liquefied Gas Company and Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Company. Last year, Qatar Gas Transport Company, or Nakilat, took delivery of the last of 54 advanced LNG tankers, a South Korean-built fleet comprising nine conventional, 31 so-called Q-Flex and 14 Q-Max carriers.
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