Regional LNG: Qatar to boost LNG capacity by 34% in 2004: Report

Qatar will boost its production capacity of liquefied natural gas by a third this year as it continues to expand output, a bank report said as reported by Bloomberg.

Qatar will raise its production capacity by 34 per cent this year to 20.2 million tons of liquefied natural gas from 15.1 million tons in 2003, the Qatar National Bank said in its Qatar Economic Review. Qatar National Bank is the country's largest in terms of banking assets, according to Moody's Investors Service.

The country, which ranks after Russia and Iran in gas reserves, plans to become the world's biggest LNG exporter by 2010. Qatar plans to produce 55.2 million tons of LNG a year by the end of the decade.

Qatar has signed agreements with international oil companies to sell a much as 16.6 million tons of LNG in 2004, or 27 per cent more than sales in 2003, the report said. The country exported last year 14.4 million tons of LNG, mainly to Japan, South Korea, Spain and Russia.

The country's income from LNG is expected to match its earnings from oil production by 2006, the report said. Qatar produced last year 784,000 barrels of oil a day and plans to boost production by 14 per cent to 893,000 barrels of oil a day by 2006, the report said.(*)