Qatar currently produces approximately 800,000 bpd of oil and 4.5 bscfd of gas per day. Whilst most of the natural gas originates from the giant offshore North Field, its oil fields are located both onshore and offshore. Qatar also produces a small amount of associated gas from its oil fields.

The down stream oil and gas processing, fertilizer and petrochemical industries are concentrated in Dukhan, Ras Laffan and Mesaieed. The offshore operations are located primarily in the Northern and Eastern territorial waters. These are now being extended to the western waters after the settlement of the border dispute with Bahrain.

Oil was first discovered in 1940 in Dukhan, lying along the western coast of the peninsula. It is the only onshore oil field though exploration work has now been initiated in other blocks. The production from the eastern offshore fields is exported through a terminal at Halul Island in addition to independent floating storage units deployed in the Al Shaheen and Al Rayyan fields.

In 1946, Qatar developed Mesaieed, located on the eastern coast as an oil and condensate export terminal. Over the years Mesaieed has developed into a hub of down stream fertilizer and petrochemical industry. It today hosts a refinery, four NGL plants, the world’s largest ammonia / urea complex, two world scale polyethylene plants, a large methanol / MTBE complex, an Ethylene Dichloride / VCM plant, and a large steel plant. Plans are afoot for the expansion and diversification of most of the plants. The Mesaieed port has undergone several expansions to keep pace with the export requirements of each of the plants most of whom are allotted dedicated berths.

Ras Laffan represents the landfall point for the North Sea gas and consequently is the hub for most gas related industry. The country invested hugely in the development of a new deep water port to cater to large LNG and product carriers. In 1992 the country’s first LNG plant Qatargas was established. This was followed in 1996 with the establishment of the second and larger Rasgas LNG plant. As Qatar’s LNG market expanded, the capacities of both these plants were augmented by installation of new and larger trains. The plants are undergoing further expansions as Qatari LNG heads for Europe and US in addition to the Far East and India.

Parallel with the development of the LNG plants, Ras Laffan is witnessing the development of the gas industry. Two projects, Dolphin Energy and Al Khaleej Gas are under execution for the export of Qatari gas via pipeline to the lower and upper gulf countries.

Ras Laffan is also the location at which the Qatar’s GTL plants are being developed. The first of these plants, Oryx GTL which is in collaboration with Sasol, is under construction and due to come on stream by 2005, and two other plants in collaboration with ExxonMobil and Shell have been signed up. Other installations include a Helium plant and a large gas based integrated water and power plant.

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