QATAR - Gas/Condensates.

Marketed gas production will rise rapidly before 2012. New condensate streams have come from the QatarGas LNG venture, in which QP's partners are Total, ExxonMobil, Mitsui and Marubeni. The second LNG venture RasGas, in which QP's partners are ExxonMobil, Nissho-Iwai, Itochu and a South Korean group, began producing gas and condensates in April 1999 - months ahead of schedule. Since then RasGas's LNG export capacity has risen rapidly. Actual output at QatarGas will exceed 10m t/y by end-2005. That of RasGas exceeds 11m t/y. Four more ventures will raise the emirate's total LNG export capacity by 2012 to more than 75m t/y, making Qatar by far the world's biggest LNG exporter. Qatar is to have the world biggest LNG shipping business (see Gas Market Trends No. 11).

By 2012, production of condensates in Qatar will rise to 800,000 b/d. Condensates are excluded from OPEC's quota system, but they are not popular on the market. As a result, QP and the main partners in Qatargas are having a 146,000 b/d condensate refinery built at Ras Laffan to produce naphtha, diesel, kerosine and LPG from 2008. QP hopes to find a number of refining ventures on both sides of Suez to depend on its condensates. QP is considering a new oil refinery with a capacity of 200,000 b/d (see DT No. 10).

Qatar is becoming the GTL capital of the world. One GTL plant being built will have a capacity of 34,000 b/d of ultra-clean fuels in 2006 and will be expanded to produce almost 110,000 b/d. Shell is having two 70,000 b/d GTL trains to be huilt as part of a huge integrated project to bring ultra-clean fuels capacities to 404,000 b/d by 2011, including a 154,000 b/d plant to be run by ExxonMobil. Other JVs to bring the total to 700,000 b/d are on hold for the near future in view of a big rise in the cost of raw materials for new projects.

There will be major gas production streams and regional export pipelines being developed by ExxonMobil, Anadarko and Abu Dhabi-controlled Dolphin Energy to supply Arab Gulf and Pakistani markets with natural gas.

Qatar is to become the world's biggest exporter of LPG with its capacity to rise from 4m t/y to 14m t/y by 2012. As the emirate intends to have its own ships to transport most of its liquids exports, Qatar is to acquire at least 30 LPG vessels of the 80,000m3 capacity, these will join a fleet of nearly 100 LNG tankers.

By 2012 Qatar will have overtaken Saudi Arabia in LPG exports. Saudi Arabia will by then have become a major consumer of LPG for a rapidly expanding petrochemicals producing industry.