Qatar Pulls Out of Opec, to Focus on Gas
Qatar will be withdrawing from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) effective January 1, 2019, its minister of state for energy affairs Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi said December 3 at a news conference in Doha.
“The withdrawal decision reflects Qatar’s desire to focus its efforts on plans to develop and increase its natural gas production from 77 million metric tons/year to 110mn mt/yr in the coming years,” Al-Kaabi said. “Achieving our ambitious growth strategy will undoubtedly require focused efforts, commitment and dedication to maintain and strengthen Qatar’s position as the leading natural gas producer.” The decision, which was confirmed by Qatar Petroleum (QP) on Twitter, comes just days before a December 6 Opec meeting.
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Al-Kaabi - who headed QP since 2014 – was appointed the minister of state for energy affairs early-November. He has called gas the destination fuel rather than a bridging fuel; in October he said that an upward revised expansion of Qatari planned LNG production to 110mn mt/yr was "conservative" and that QP could "overshoot [it] by a little bit". Al Kaabi replaced Mohammed Bin Saleh al-Sada, the energy minister since 2011.
Brokerage Cantor Fitzgerald's oil and gas analyst Ashley Kelty said Opec's decision was a surprise but would have little impact: "Qatar is a tiny oil producer – accounting for less than 2% of the cartels output – but it is one of the world’s largest LNG producers, and as such membership of Opec doesn’t really deliver the benefits that it does to other member nations."