Wednesday, 24^th March 2021

On Wednesday, the International Chamber of Commerce Qatar (ICC Qatar) in partnership with Refinitiv, held an online event titled 'Resilient and Resurgent: Qatar Oil and Gas Overview'. The webinar comprised a panel discussion about Qatar's oil and gas industry, how the blockade has changed its foreign trade dynamics, the emergence of alternative and cleaner sources of energy and the impact of COVID-19 on the energy sector. The distinguished members of the panel included; Mr. Hatem Elsafty, Partner at Mazars; Mr. Howard Bevan, Head of Energy at Al Attiyah Foundation; Mr. Sudharsan Sarathy, Senior Oil Analyst at Refinitiv; Mr. Abhishek Kumar, Senior Oil Analyst at Refinitiv as well as Ms. Kristine Petrosyan, Oil Market Analyst at International Energy Agency (IEA) who moderated the session. At the start of the webinar, Ms. Anne Kat Brevik, Director and LNG Researcher at Refinitiv, presented an overview of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in Qatar. Ms. Anne pointed to the recent sanctioning of Qatar Petroleum’s North Filed Expansion Phase 1. She added “the timing seems good. Last winter’s spike in Asian LNG spot prices and expectations of a gradual tightening of the LNG market balance over the next few year, should support the willingness of importers to sign up for LNG supply contracts”. During the panel discussion on the effects of the blockade on the oil and gas industry, Mr Hatem said “Qatar’s response to the political turmoil, showed with no doubt, a leadership brilliance through their development of business continuity management systems and resilience programs, at its best, at all levels of the country, especially its oil and gas sector, resulting in speedy recovery from major block-aid incident, ending up with Qatari economy becoming stronger, more efficient, and more effective”. Mr. Howard revealed that “competition for gas from other generation fuels will undoubtably increase. Qatar LNG has a good competitive position because of economies of scale. The change to hydrogen as a fuel is a possibility. Here, Qatar is also in a good position as methane is a source of hydrogen which is readily available. Transportation using ammonia or methanol are technologies that are well understood and already implemented in Qatar”. Ms. Kristine noted the particularly diverse discussion touching upon oil and LNG, the short-term and long-term developments in the energy markets. “The webinar benefitted from the diverse backgrounds of the participants, well-balanced between fundamental analysis and geopolitical discussion”. HE Sheikha Tamader Al Thani, Director of International Relations and Chamber Affairs of ICC Qatar, added "despite the fluctuation of oil prices worldwide as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the State of Qatar has managed to maintain its position as a leading player in the global energy market, as well as demonstrate its commitment to strengthening its position by signing major agreements with countries such as China, one of the largest consumers of oil in the world”.\n