The recession does not change its strategy

Ras Laffan is an industrial city raised in no part located 75 kilometres north of Doha, the capital of the Qatar, this vast gas complex has everything from a small town. About a hundred square kilometres lie liquefaction plants, petrochemical complexes and a refinery. Traffic lights regulate traffic from one site to another.

It must be said that Ras Laffan has the habit of Pharaonic projects. More than 150,000 people have worked on site at the peaks of activity. Alone, the Shell's Pearl GTL project still employs employees 48.000. Since the start of this project in 2006, the tanker has invested nearly $ 19 billion in what will be the largest world installation for the production of fuel from natural gas. But other companies are not at rest. In October, Ras Gas, the joint venture of ExxonMobil and QatarPetroleum, has launched its sixth production of liquefied natural gas (LNG) train. The previous month, these two groups, associated with Total and Japanese players, had started a refinery with a capacity of 148.000 barrels per day.

Immense resources

Why such profusion Ras Laffan is built around the largest gas field in the world, the "North Field", located in the Arabian Gulf on the border between the Iran and the Qatar. With this deposit, the country also known for the famous television Al-Jazeera channel holds third gas reserves of the planet, behind the Iran and the Russia.

Ras Laffan is the result of the desire to exploit these immense resources. The construction of the site began in 1992, but a net of Accelerator was given three years later the arrival to power of the Emir Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani. After his father, on holiday in Switzerland, the man widely opens the country to foreign companies and invests billions of dollars in production of LNG.

There conducted in tandem with the Minister of energy, Abdallah bin Hamad al-Attia, this bet is at the time much skepticism. Gas prices are low in the early 2000s and nobody visibility about what will be the market upon completion of all these projects. But success is by appointment. In 2007, the Qatar becomes the first exporter of LNG in the world. The production of liquefied gas considerably enriches the country, raising the among the first nations of the world in terms of per capita income. By September 2010, the country should further increase its production capacity to reach 77 million tonnes per year against just 31 million in 2007.

Beautiful location

Problem: the global demand for gas is in Bern and the spot prices collapsed. "But we are building our facilities as part of a long-term strategy, not for the short term," recalled Tuesday the Minister of energy. The country has the means to withstand a decline in demand. Its production costs are low. "Taking into account economies of scale, the sale of reduced oil though gas is probably sufficient to finance most of the activities of liquefied natural gas," said Samuel Ciszuk, analyst at IHS.

Midway of the Asia and the United States, the Qatar enjoys an advantageous geographical position, which allows it to send the LNG to the market where prices are highest. In the end, the strength of the country to the crisis is impressive. According to the international monetary fund, the Qatar should register a growth of 11.5 in 2009 and 18.5 per cent next year. The recession does not change its strategy. By 2014, the country plans to invest $ 85 billion in oil and gas production, refining and petrochemicals. At this time, the oil expect even a lifting of the moratorium imposed in 2005 on gas exploration permits. What a little more boost LNG production in the next 10 years.