(MENAFN- The Peninsula) As of January 2014, Qatar is sitting on the third-largest proved reserves of natural gas, which is around 900 trillion cubic feet (Tcf), the world's largest single natural gas deposit, according to the latest figures announced by the Minister of Energy and Industry, H E Mohamed bin Saleh Al Sada yesterday.
Dr Al Sada, in his address at the opening of the 18th Condensate & Naphtha Forum, which was presented by Nasser Al Jaidah, CEO of Qatar Petroleum International, and the Vice-Chairman of Qatar International Petroleum Marketing Company (Tasweeq), said: "Additionally, we witnessed a recent new offshore discovery, the Al-Radeef field, in the Block 4 North; where as much as 2.5 Tcf of natural gas has been discovered after four years of intensive exploration activities. This is Qatar's first new discovery in 42 years."
Providing an overview of Qatar's energy industry and its achievements, he said that Qatar is the largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the world, and Qatar is also considered as the biggest producer of Field Condensate. "Qatar was the world's fourth largest dry natural gas producer in 2012 (behind the United States, Russia, and Iran), and has been the world's leading LNG exporter since 2006," he said.
He also said that with the startup of Barzan Gas Project in early 2015, it will play a significant role in meeting Qatar's rising domestic gas demand.
The second expansion project is at Laffan Refinery. This project is expected to be completed in 2016, and will process an additional 146,000 barrel per stream day of condensate.
Some of this demand is driven by Qatar's large-scale expansion of the petrochemicals sector, which supports the diversification and growth of the Qatari economy.
It is estimated that Qatar will raise its chemical and petrochemical output to 23 million tonnes per annum by the year 2020. A very important project in this relevance is Al-Karaana, in addition to Qapco's ethylene production (EP3) expansion project which will increase the installed ethylene production capacity from the existing 800,000 MTPA to approximately 1.2 million MTPA by 2016.
The 18th edition of the forum, the third time in Doha, discussed some of the most pressing condensate related issues including how top condensate producers output will fare at lower crude prices, US condensate projections and resulting market dynamics in Asia, the Middle East and the European countries.
The forum featured a panel of speakers, with key Qatari and international players and condensate experts, from leading regional NOCs, oil majors, top traders, consultants and refiners. Tasweeq's CEO Saad Al Kuwari was also present at the forum who provided his welcome address.
Dr Fereidun Fesharaki, Chairman of FGE and Colin Shelley, Managing Consultant of FGE, co-chaired the forum and provided overviews setting the scene for the coveted event, followed by four keynote addresses from Shell, Tasweeq, Qatargas and Marubeni.
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