Qatar Keeps Up with Exports
The United Arab Emirates may have blocked Qataris from crossing its territory by land or sea but the tiny state's oil and gas exports continue as before, it said June 10.
Qatari LNG tankers are still leaving the Gulf and pipeline gas continues to flow to the UAE and Oman through the Dolphin pipeline. Qatar also produces about 640,000 b/d of crude oil and the same amount of gas condensate.
The biggest problems for Qatar that the Saudi-led coalition has imposed since four countries decided last week to act on allegations that it was funding terrorist organisations are the bans on food imports and crossing airspace, and ship fuelling operations.
Iran can help with this: it has dispatched five cargos by plane to Qatar; international ships are re-fuelling with gasoil and fuel oil in Iranian ports and Qatari planes are passing through Iran’s airspace. Last year, Iran exported and bunkered about 290,000 b/d of fuel oil and gas oil, while the nominal capacity is double that.
As well as the 56mn m³/d Dolphine line, Qatar’s 77mn mt/yr LNG exports also continue as before.
About 40% of UAE’s power plants rely on Qatari gas, while Oman needs Qatari gas – at least until the BP-operated Khazzan field starts up later this year.
At the same time it announced it was sending food to Qatar, Tehran announced that it sent its first 35,000 metric ton wheat cargo to Oman. Iran has relied more than a decade on wheat imports, but during 2017 its production surpassed consumption and the first cargo was exported to Oman. Iran and Oman have very close relations. Oman helped broker the Iran nuclear deal with the US and other countries in 2015.
Oman and Iran also have a 10bn m³/yr gas export deal, expected to become operational in early 2020s.
Meanwhile US and France are accelerating mediation between Qatar and Arabian coalition. American and French companies have massive gas related ties with Qatar. Last week the Kuwaiti emir embarked on shuttle diplomacy.
American Occidental Petroleum and French Total have each 24.5% stake in Dolphin pipeline. Exxon Mobil has decades-long involvement with LNG in Qatar and when the US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was at the company, it invested $30bn and built the giant Qatari LNG trains and related reception terminals in the European Union and the US – expected to be the major destinations before the US found cheaper ways to produce shale gas. The two already have LNG import projects in the UK and Italy and have formed Ocean LNG to work together outside Qatar, such as marketing LNG to Brazil.
American ConocoPhillips and French Total also have major relations with Qatar in the gas and power sectors including commitments to buy LNG.
Dalga Khatinoglu