Qatar Resources and Natural Gas - Essay Example

Qatar Resources Asian countries, mainly the Middle Eastern countries are quiet sufficient in their resources. Almost all of them contain the rich reservoirs of oil and gas, which are mandatory in today’s world of technology. These resources are used in their own factories for power generation and they don’t need to import them. But they actually export them to different countries. They export it to western countries as well. Many countries in the western world are not having the energy resources in their countries. Qatar is an important Middle Eastern country, which is rich in oil and gas. These resources are present on both onshore and offshore of the country. The country contains one of the largest gas reservoirs of the world. Different oil and gas companies are involved in the Production Sharing Agreement with the government. “Asian countries, mainly the Middle Eastern countries meet their energy resources, because they got a large number of reservoirs of oil and gas. These reservoirs are not only sufficient for them but also they export it to other countries as well. These reservoirs are their major source of earning revenue.” Qatar Qatar is an Arab country, which lies in the southwest of Asia. It consists of Qatar Peninsula, south of it is Saudi Arabia and the other sides are surrounded by Arab Gulf. It is an Islamic country. It became an independent country in 3rd September, 1971. The official name of Qatar is Dawlat Qatar. It was occupied by Ottoman and then British Empire earlier. British developed interest in this area, when they were heading their way to India, latter the discovery of oil and other hydrocarbons in the area, redeveloped their interests. After Second World War, British found it difficult to stay in power of their colonial rules. India declared independence in 1947, the Arab states also tried to get away with the colonial rule of Britain. Kuwait declared independence in 1961, which opened the way for other Arab states for independence. In 1968, British announced their plans of withdrawal from the Arab Peninsula within three years of time. A federation was formed which includes many Arab states, including Qatar. Though Qatar left the federation due to some regional disputes and the federation later turned into United Arab Emirates. The country is country rules by Sheik Hamad bin Jassem al Thani. Qatar allowed the international or western sources to use it as base in 1991. The country was involved in few regional disputes with the neighbors. Border dispute with Saudi Arabia was settled in December, 1992. A conflict still there between Qatar and Bahrain over the Hawar Islands. In 1994, Qatar signed a defense pact with United States and became an ally of US. Qatar is the third country to do so in the peninsula. Qatar Resources Before the discovery of oil and gas in the country, Qatar’s economy depends mostly on fishing and pearling. Oil was discovered in 1945, it completely changed the economy of Qatar. The petroleum reserves were found on both onshore and offshore. Onshore they were found along the western coast of Dhukan. And offshore, they were found by the eastern shore of the country. Oil is the major resource of the country at this time. And is said to be the most important aspect of economy of Qatar. The country’s economy is mainly dependent on oil but they found the gas reserves in the country as well. The massive gas deposits, however, helped the country in reducing its dependency on oil in terms of economy. The gas reserves were being developed in 1990’s and they were mostly found in North field, Offshore. It is considered to be the largest gas field, discovered in the world. However, they spent fortune on the development of the natural gas. But thanks to the prices of oil, which keeps on increasing from the start of the current century, which allows the country economy to be firm enough to overcome this burden. The country is quiet sufficient when it comes to the energy resources. It got huge oil and gas reserves in it. The main focus of the country is to develop its gas resources to a strong position, so that the economy of the country should not be only dependent on oil reserves. The country is doing so with the help of the joint resources with different multi-national oil and gas companies. The main focus is on the north shore. Oil and gas are the major contributors in the country’s economy. The oil reserves are estimated as 15 billion barrels around the country and gas reserves are estimated to be 800–900tcf. These reserves are the reason for the self sufficiency of the country on its own resources. Hydrocarbon resources are the major contributor in the economy. Country’s GDP is mainly gained from this oil and gas reserves and these resources are considered as the back bone of the country’s economy. The country is considered to be the third largest in respect of the natural gas reserves. As discussed earlier, government spent a lot on these gas reserves, to make them useable and also on the oil fields as well. It results in the boost of production of these already discovered reserves. A massive foreign investment is been attracted towards the country because of these hydrocarbon resources. Investors include different oil and gas companies which helps the government in the management of these reserves. The government has indulged itself into a series of Production Sharing Agreement with different oil and gas companies. However, these oil and gas reserves are the reason for further economy growth in the country. The number of jobs is increasing because of them and people are getting new jobs in the industrial sector. Qatar is the major exporter of oil in the world. The oil export revenues are increasing every year. According to the statistics, they were QR 8.9 billion (US$ 2.44 billion) in 1995 and QR 12.4 billion (US$ 3.4 billion) in 1996.1 According to these figures, it is obvious that the revenue is increasing every year. 2 The reason behind the increase in export is actually the increase in production. The production of oil and gas is increasing year by year. Because of this production, the country is able to achieve its targets of oil and gas exports. The production is, however, 700/000 barrels per day (bpd) during the earlier 2000’s. Qatar Petroleum, which was founded in 1974, is responsible for the oil and gas production and export in the country and also abroad. It is the government owned organization. Oil In Qatar, the oil is at both, Onshore and Offshore fields. Onshore field contains the biggest reserve of the crude oil in the country. The famous, Dukhan field, which contains 49% of the country’s oil, is found at the onshore. The Dukhan field is operated and managed by the Qatar Petroleum. It is estimated to contain at about 2.2 billion barrels of oil in it. Onshore field was discovered in the early 1940’s, and the production was initiated in 1949. It also contains the other processing facilities, for example, separation of crude oil, gas and water. It helps the country most, when they are actually exporting it. The production plant at onshore can handle up to 280, 000 b/d of oil, 310 MBPD of gross liquid and 260 million standard cubic feet (MMSCFD) per day of gas. 3 From Dukhan plant, the crude oil is then pumped into Messai’eed, with the help of the pipeline. The oil is now ready to export and is actually exported from this point. On the other hand, if we take a look at the gas operations, it became obvious that the gas is further more worked on to produce the NGL’s and later it is exported. So oil and gas, before being exported outside the country, are processed and this shows that the country is developed enough to establish their industry to this extent. If they will export it like raw oil and without processing, then they might not get enough payment for those exports. The onshore field and specially the Dukhan field are considered to be as the top priority field for the Qatar Petroleum. They are constantly trying to maximize the production at the field. The production could be increased or maximized not only by discovering new reservoirs but they are trying to improve and enhanced the techniques and technology so that they can increase the production in less time. And to some extent, they are improving. This requires money and also the skilled personnel. They can easily get the both of them. To get money for this purpose means that they need to have more investors for their oil and gas fields. This could be done with the collaboration of different oil and gas companies. The skilled personnel can also be attracted through these companies. These companies are multi-national companies and they include skillful and highly qualified staff from the different parts of the world. The government of Qatar is also trying to enhance their existing reservoirs through different techniques. The gas and oil, both productions could be enhanced with the help of advance technology. Unlike onshore, the discovery of offshore oil reservoirs came late, in 1960’s. They are mainly present at the eastern side of the country. Like onshore, many fields are present on offshore as well. Most of them are operated and managed by the Qatar petroleum. But some of them are being managed by different companies, in contact with Qatar Petroleum, under the contract of Production Sharing Agreements. These companies are the international oil and gas companies, which plays an important role in production and then helping them in further exporting of oil and gas. The names of the fields present on offshore are, Maydan Mazham operated by QP Bul Hanine operated by QP Idd Al Sharqi operated by Occidental Petroleum Al-Shaheen operated by Maersk Oil Al-Rayyan operated by a consortium headed by Arco /Wintershall Al-Khaleej operated by Elf Petroleum/Agip The major companies involved in the Production Sharing Agreement are Chevron and Penzoil. Their task is to explore the further reservoirs of oil and gas in the country on both onshore and offshore. The offshore fields are likely to increase their production because of the advancement in technology. The new technology methods are now introduced and they directly affect the production of the oil and it affects it positively. The oil obtained from the offshore is sent to Halul Island, where it is stored and after this it is exported. Natural Gas Natural Gas was discovered in 1963 in Qatar. There are three natural gas production plants in the country. This gas is not only used by the country itself, to cope their needs of energy but is also exported. The gases produced in these plants include, methane-rich gas, ethane-rich gas, propane, butane and condensate. The main gas resources are found at offshore. According to the experts, the largest reservoir of gas contains the 380 trillion cubic feet (TCF) gas in it. With oil, the Qatar government is also one of the bigger exporters of gas in the world. These reservoirs of gas are the major revenue generating projects of Qatar’s governments. Conclusion Qatar does not only contain enough energy resources to meet their own needs but also they are the biggest exporter of oil and gas in the world. The reservoirs of oil and gas are enough for the country’s need. They fulfill the country’s need, it is sufficient to run their factories and also it is sufficient for their automobiles. With cooperation with different oil and gas companies, the government of Qatar is busy in generating revenue by exporting the oil and gas to other companies. There are different refineries which process the oil and gas before exporting them, so that the crude oil could be cleaned and well processed before being exported. A major good work done by the government of Qatar is Production Sharing Agreement with different multi-national oil and gas companies, which enable the government and companies to work together. This is beneficial for both of them. Bibliography 1. Anthony H. Cordesman (1997) Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, and the UAE: Challenges of Security (P 238) Westview Press 2. Hassan Ibrahim Al-Mohannadi (2001). Water Resources in the State of Qatar: Toward Holistic Management. (164) University of Huddersfield 3. Charles E. Brown (2002).World Energy Resources (P 352) Springer 4. Ali A. Hakim (1979). The Middle Eastern States and the Law of the Sea. (P 178)Syracuse UniversityPress 5. Frederick F. Anscombe (1987). The Ottoman Gulf: The Creation of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar (P 289). Columbia University Press 6. Guy Arnold. (1997). The resources of The Third World.(P 326) Taylor & Francis 7. Lester Charles Uren (1946). Petroleum Production Engineering. (P 215) McGraw-Hill 8. Ragaei El Mallakh (1985). Qatar: Energy & Development Ragaei El Mallakh (P 126)Published. Croom Helm 9. Thomas Edward Ward. (1965). Negotiations for Oil Concessions in Bahrain, El Hasa (Saudi Arabia).(P 265) Petroleum industry and trade Author. (year) title. Place. Publisher Author (year) title. Web title [Internet]. Available from [Accessed 19 November 2007] Read More

 

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