A few days back Qatar Petroleum entered into an agreement to acquire a stake in exploration of 12 offshore blocks along the coast of Morocco.
This comes as part of the strategy followed by Qatar Petroleum to expand overseas through strategic investment around the world. In Morocco, they will acquire a 30 percent participating interest in the Tarfaya Shallow Exploration Permit from Eni. This comes shortly after another similar agreement signed, again with Eni, for a stake in a block in Mozambique.
Qatar Petroleum agreed to acquire a 25.5 percent participating interest in block A5A, located in the Angoche basin last week. During the signing ceremony, H E Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, Minister of State for Energy Affairs, and President & CEO of Qatar Petroleum, made a significant remark about the company’s investment strategy.
“By entering into this new agreement, we aim at expanding our exploration portfolio to ensure diversification of geographies as well as geologies and basins. Having a large and diversified exploration portfolio is a key long-term objective for Qatar Petroleum and essential for success,” he said.
This is very true and much needed as Qatar needs to strategise for the future by not only investing at home, but also by diversifying and finding opportunities outside the country.
These two are part of a series of investments by the oil-major in recent times. Last month, the first discovery in Qatar Petroleum’s international exploration ventures was reported from South Africa.
This achievement is an important milestone for Qatar and the oil-major in particular as Al Kaabi said, “this reflects the soundness of our strategy, in which international exploration forms an important pillar that will enable Qatar Petroleum to grow and expand our international footprint.”
Qatar Petroleum and its partners, led by Total, announced a significant gas condensate discovery in the Brulpadda prospects, located in Block 11B/12B in the Outeniqua Basin, off the southern coast of South Africa in the beginning of February.
A few weeks later, there was also a significant natural gas discovery on the Glaucus-1 prospect, located in Block 10 in the Eastern Mediterranean, offshore Cyprus by Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil.
In February, Qatar Petroleum invested over $10bn in US for developing the Golden Pass LNG export project, which is in Sabine Pass, Texas - a joint venture with ExxonMobil, in which Qatar Petroleum holds 70% stake.
Qatar Investment Authority has also been diversifying their investment across various geographies and sectors.
This shows Qatar’s sound investment strategy and good relations with corporate and various governments around the world.
