Doha: H E Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, Minister of State for Energy Affairs, the President and CEO of Qatar Petroleum, said that gas is the future of the energy industry, noting that many countries are currently abandoning coal and moving to natural gas.
Minister’s statements were made during a panel discussion entitled, “The Future of LNG in Meeting the World's Energy Demand” held as part of the Doha Forum 2019 with the participation of Patrick Pouyanné, the Chairman and CEO of TOTAL, and Claudio Descalzi, the CEO of Eni.
Regarding the geopolitical pressure and the blockade on Qatar, Al Kaabi replied that he did not like to talk about this issue, because it is something that Qatar had overcome a long time ago. Following the announcement of the blockade, Qatar Petroleum and its subsidiaries were able to overcome the negative effects of the blockade within 5 to 10 days through a set of measures to change the way it carried out its activities in line with the new situation.
He said that "Qatar Petroleum does not mix politics with economics and business, so Qatar still provides 40 per cent of the UAE's energy needs."
Stressing the importance of natural gas, he said, “The current energy transition is mostly driven by the need for cleaner and more economical and sustainable alternatives. Natural gas is key in this transition because of its qualities as the cleanest of fossil fuels.”
“Many countries are moving away from coal and building infrastructure for the use of gas. When we consider the efforts to combat climate change and the ongoing concerns over CO2 and other gas emissions, it is clear that gas is the future,” H E the Minister added
The Minister highlighted Qatar’s strategy to serve the requirements of gas importers, and its plans on how to do that including the recent announcement to raise the country’s LNG production capacity to 126 million tons per annum by 2027.
“We do not see ourselves in competition with anybody. We focus on what we control, which is cost. We want to be safe, efficient and reliable.
“We see exploration as the springboard of our international expansion. We are working with good partners and are willing to take the risks associated with this business. Our efforts have paid off in a number of our investments, and more is coming very soon. We are no longer a national oil company but rather an international one,” he added
Addressing environmental concern, H E the Minister called on the oil and gas industry to take more responsibility towards carbon capture and storage, as well as in its overall attitude towards the environment.
Noting a series of Qatari environmental initiatives, His Excellency drew attention to the largest CO2 recovery and sequestration facility currently in operation in the MENA region in Qatar saying, “We have recently announced 2.5 million tons of CO2 sequestration to reach 5 million tons by 2024, and hopefully to 7 million by 2027.”
Regarding the risks of exploration in light of the low prices, he said that despite the risks that exploration operations involve, exploration contains great opportunities and allows Qatar Petroleum to expand globally.
He continued: "Exploration is expensive and involve high risk in light of success rates of 10 to 15 per cent, but Qatar Petroleum is working with many active partners in the field of exploration in many countries".
He stated that Qatar Petroleum is part of a project in the US to produce large quantities of natural gas, which gives it a flexibility that does not exist for many similar companies.
