Regional LNG: Qatar to boost LNG sales
Monday, October 13 2003 - 02:20 AM WIB
Attiyah, also the president of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) which controls about half of world crude exports, said he was positive that Russia, a key non-OPEC producer, would continue to cooperate with the cartel.
"We are targeting more than 45 million tonnes per year of LNG exports by 2010," Attiyah told reporters.
The Gulf Arab state, which holds the world's third largest gas reserve in its continental shelf, currently exports around 15 million tonnes a year, mainly to Japan, South Korea but also to Spain and the United States.
Attiyah, in Seoul for an annual visit to meet with the government officials and domestic oil and gas companies, said the country would invest about $25 to $30 billion to meet the 2010 target.
Currently, the country has two LNG projects --- Qatar Liquefied Gas Company (Qatargas), which has current output capacity of 7.7 million tpy and RasGas with output capacity of 6.6 million tpy.
Qatar has recently signed agreements with ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP - News) for 7.5 million tpy supply to the United States and 15 million tpy with Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM - News) for the UK market.
He said Qatar viewed Asia as a key market.
"We will continue serving Asia," Attiyah said. "We'll be there to work with Asia in the market."
Qatar has a long-term LNG supply contract with South Korea's state-run Korea Gas Corp (KOGAS), the world's single largest LNG buyer, for an annual supply of 4.9 million tonnes.
Attiyah also said the OPEC producer has a plan to boost its crude oil production capacity to one million barrels per day (bpd) from current 830,000 bpd, but provided no timeframe for the plan.
"It's still a plan. We don't know yet when," he said. "It depends on exploration works," he added. There were new blocks to be awarded soon, but he did not elaborate on them.(*)