City of Doha
Doha Bay
Doha, Qatar
Population
The population of Qatar amounts to 1,500,000 inhabitants (according to the initial results of the second stage of the 2009 population census.) 83% of inhabitants reside in Doha and its main
suburb, Al-Rayyan.
Doha
The capital city is situated on a calm bay halfway along the East Coast of the Qatar peninsula. It is inhabited by 83% of the population in both Doha and Rayan suburb. Doha is the commercial and cultural center of the country.
Economic Status
Oil, gas and upstream and downstream industries resources are the mainstay of the Qatari economy. The economic policy of the state aims to invest the returns of oil and gas in economically profitable projects and in establishing a solid industrial base. It adopts new approaches in the field of economic and trade liberalization with a view to enhance and expand foreign capital investments and the private sector.
The Qatar economy is considered one of the fastest growing economies in the world and maintained high growth rate by virtue of the huge increase in oil prices in 2006-2007 as the GNP witnessed another record growth during 2007. This has been an extension to the record growth rate achieved in the last four years where the GNP jumped to QR258.6bn in 2007 compared to QR115bn in 2004, an increase of 33.7% due to the increase in oil prices and revenues. There was also a considerable increase in gas production and exportation, completion of the giant natural gas projects and increase in non-oil products. Oil prices increased by 50% in 2007 and reached an annual average of $71 per barrel compared to $64.3 per barrel in 2006. An increase in natural gas exports reached 30 million tons compared to 25 tons in 2006.
Oil and gas, construction and building, and financial services and real estate topped the economic sectors with higher growth rates in 2007 compared to 2006. The growth of these sectors is attributed to increased oil prices in international markets and the construction, real estate and financial services boom. The oil and gas sector continued to achieve steady growth rates during 2007 to rest on 146.1 billion Qatari riyals, up by 28 billion Qatari riyals.
Commodity production growth has increased in real productivity value by more than 24.7 billion Qatari riyals, about 26.8%, to 116 Billion Qatari Riyal. The commodity production sector represents about 47.6% of the total productivity value of the non-oil sectors.
Oil and Gas
Qatar works hard to maintain its daily output capacity of 850 thousand barrels of crude oil. Work is in progress on the North Gas Field development project which is scheduled to be completed in 2010 and is estimated to produce more than 18 billion cubic feet of liquefied natural gas (LNG) per day.
The Qatari leadership also seeks to increase the output capacity of LNG to more than 60 million tons per year from the current level of about 18 million tons per year. Apart from the four trains of gas liquids operating at present in Mesaieed, the future development projects of the north gas field will base their LNG plants in Ras Laffan Industrial City. Natural gas liquids complex and oil refineries complex are 100% owned by QP.
Production and Exports
In 2005, Qatar's average output of crude oil was 845 thousand barrels per day.
The average exported quantity of crude oil and its products has exceeded (570) thousand barrels for the same year.
Qatar Petroluem
Established in 1974, Qatar Petrleum (QP) is 100% owned by the state. It is responsible for all phases of crude oil and gas industry (including any derivative and by-products such as petrochemicals and LNG), including exploration, drilling, production, refining, transport and storage. It is also responsible for trading, distribution, sale and export of these substances.
QP specializes in various fields of oil and gas industry. The ministry of energy and industry undertakes planning and supervising of the implementation of the strategy of oil and gas sector and related industries within the context of its general policy.
The state of Qatar continues, through QP and the concerted efforts of its high quality human resources, to implement the plans aiming to increase oil reserves and oil output capacity by developing onshore and offshore oil fields. As the country is seeking to become one of the leading exporters of liquefied natural gas (LNG), it has developed the following major LNG projects:
- Qatar Liquefied Natural Gas Company (Qatargas).
- Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Company (Rasgas).
Other achievements of QP include the establishment of Ras Laffan seaport with its annual output capacity of 30 thousand metric tons making it one of the world's largest LNG exporting terminals.
Gas Marketing
Qatar intends to invest UD $ 25 billion in the next 6 years to increase the present LNG export capacity in excess of four-fold to reach 63.5 million tons by the year 2010. Negotiations have reached an advanced stage to sell 37 million tons of LNG to two US companies.
Qatar signed agreements to supply the American and British markets with 7.5 and 15 million tons of LNG through ConocoPhilips and Exxon Mobil.
Presently Qatar exports about 15 million tons of LNG annually to Japan, South Korea, Spain and the USA. About 26 million tons were exported in 2006. Exports to India and Italy reached 7.5 and 3.5 million tons annually.
Major Achievements of QP in Social and Environment Protection Fields
Qatar was the first in the Middle East to produce lead-free gasoline. Its program to phase out gasoline containing lead started in the early 1990s and went through 2000.
Investment Incentives
Qatar is blessed with a solid base of attractive investment opportunities. It is a politically and socially stable country and production conditions favor the participation in power consuming industries in light of the fact that the country has the largest single concentration of non associated gas in the world, helping gain a remarkable edge on economic advancement. The country is located in the hub on the gulf region. Its long shorelines and many maritime access routes to the world, make it more competitive as a center for international investment. In addition, the Qatari economy is market oriented, and the State continually enacts and updates legislation to bolster the trend of economic openness towards all countries of the world.
Customs charges and bureaucratic or procedural restrictions are minimal or non-existent to all transactions including repatriation of foreign capitals. Legislation is in place to provide incentives and facilities that could help raise the profit margins of investments.
The State places the infrastructure including roads, utilities, ports and communications high in its list of priorities to boost economic diversification, attract foreign investments and help increase the sources of national income. Qatar facilitates the recruitment of the foreign workforce required for the development projects of the country.
Industry
The most important strategic goals of the state of Qatar in the industrial field are to expand and optimize the utilization of the added value of the country's natural resources. Besides diversifying the sources of income, especially from the industry in its capacity as the second mainstay of the Qatari economy; increasing the ratio of contribution of manufacturing industries in the gross domestic product (GDP); creating and spreading an industrial culture; accelerating the driving force behind sustainable development; upholding self-reliance and grasping the modern scientific and technological advances to increase the potential for competition and adaptation to the requirements of the export market.
The state encourages the investment of savings and surplus financial resources of the private sector in the stocks of the new industrial projects and privatizes part of its national basic industries to open more avenues for private investments in the industrial field.
Qatar seeks to develop its daily production capacity of crude oil, natural gas and gas-associated condensates to about one million barrel, 12 billion cubic feet and half a million barrels, respectively.
It plans to raise the annual production capacity of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the current level of 13 million tons to about 30 million tons by the end of 2010.
It has also been decided that the output capacity of the three-train natural gas liquids complex be raised by adding a fourth and a fifth trains by the end of 2010.
Trade
- Qatar's foreign trade balance increased in 2005 by about 40.5 billion Qatari riyals or 45.1% over the level of 2004 to reach 130.4 billion Qatari riyals.
- Accounting for 14% of the total value, imports from the GCC countries reached 5,125 million Qatari riyals this year. Imports from non-Gulf Arab countries were 1.6% of the total value in 2005, standing at about 583 million Qatari riyals.
- The European Union group is Qatar's most import trade partner.
- Major Trade Partners: Japan came on top of Qatar's trade partners in 2004 to which Qatar imports an estimated value of 28.312.000 riyals, followed by South Korea ,on the second place, to which Qatar imports an estimated value of 10.676.000 riyals , Singapore to which Qatar imports an estimated value of 6.586.000 riyals and India, on the fourth place, to which Qatar imports an estimated value of 3.654.000 riyals.