Brasília – Qatar’s minister of Energy Saad Al Kaabi (pictured above), announced this Monday (3) that his country will pull out of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) next January. Qatar is the biggest exporter of natural gas in the world. According to Kaabi, the goal is to “focus on the gas business.”
“I spoke with [OPEC’s} secretary-general, I told him that we want to focus on the gas business,” Kaabi said. The announcement comes ahead of OPEC’s Thursday (6) meeting. The Qatari minister said the decision to pull out “has nothing to do” with the economic blockade in place against Doha by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt since June 2017.
Qatar’s Aljazeera TV said the country is looking to increase natural gas output from 77 million tons to 110 million tons per year. Qatar’s oil production, on the other hand, went from 728,000 bpd in 2013 to 607,000 bpd in 2017.
Doha newspaper The Peninsula’s online version reported that the choice to focus on gas does not mean the country is leaving oil behind. Kaabi ensured that the country will go on producing oil and seeking industry deals elsewhere in the world, Brazil included. A consortium of oil companies including Qatar Petroleum won bids for three exploration and production concessions in Brazil in less than a year.
Qatar has been an OPEC member country since 1961. It is the member with the smallest territory and population, but boasts the world’s third biggest natural gas reserves, at 23.8 trillion cubic meters.
*With information from EFE and the ANBA Newsroom
Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum