The Qatar Petroleum company has recently signed a contract to develop the first phase of Qatar's North Dome Gas energy project in the Persian Gulf, which aims to increase Qatar's refining production by 40 percent by 2026. The Northfield development project was first announced in September 2018 which has been delayed.(Photo quoted from Yahoo's image)

In fact, Qatar ranks third in the world in terms of gas reserves. The   South Pars/North Gas Joint Reservoir is one of the largest and most important joint reservoirs in the world between Iran and Qatar(equivalent to 8% of the world's total gas reserves). Therefore, in the next seven years, the country's LNG production will grow by 64%. In this goal setting, the development of the North Dome field is part of the project to increase the production capacity of Qatar LNG and drill 80 wells to expand gas export capacity and revive the title of the world's largest LNG exporter.

The Qatari government is moving fast with the presentation of the "2030 National Vision of Oil Exports to the Economy Based on Exports of Petrochemicals, Gas and Gas Products".

With the withdrawal of OPEC, Qatar had focused on increasing LNG exports. Qatar's energy policy is mainly focused on the production and export of natural gas. In recent years, Qatar has been one of the largest suppliers of LNG in the global market.

However, Qatar experienced a decline in revenue in 2020 due to a sharp drop in crude oil and natural gas prices. But the small country of Qatar is trying to develop strategies for a long-term presence in the global gas market by developing its northern field. Accordingly, strategies such as maximizing production from the North Dome Square in the long term and upgrading facilities, emphasizing investment and attracting foreign capital, increasing exports and ultimately existing development are considered.

In another dimension, Qatar is relying on energy and trying to achieve an energy-driven leap for its power against rivals such as Australia, the United States, Iran and Russia. While Iran has always been faced with problems such as slow development, technological needs, etc in the development of the common field.

In practice, by paying attention to several key indicators such as the conditions of harvesting the other side, the potential of fluid migration in different fields, and the volume of each joint field, has managed to finish the development of the joint field in the Qatari sector, 11 years earlier than the Iranian sector.

In addition, more than 50% of Iran's natural gas is produced in the South Pars joint field. Therefore, Iran's efforts to compete with Qatar and invest in gas production in the Iranian sector has led Qatar to seriously consider the future development plan of the field to increase its exploitation from this joint field.

In addition, Iran's gas consumption is approximately equal to 43% of the total consumption of the European Union, but Qatar has different conditions. Qatar entered the gas liquefaction route from the beginning and has low domestic consumption. Therefore, it has become a major exporter of liquefied natural gas(LNG). In another dimension, Qatar has undergone some changes in the field of exports in recent years, but by adopting various and numerous gas policies, it seeks to gain new trans-regional markets.

Furthermore, with the global attention to use clean and low-risk energy for the environment and the efforts of countries to import energy, Doha is considering the development of liquefied gas. 

This is while, over the past decade, LNG production has grown in the United States, Australia and other countries, while Qatar has not increased its own capacity. So now, with the world's largest LNG expansion project(at a total cost of approximately $ 29 billion), the country can increase its own production from about 77 million tons of liquefied natural gas per year to 126 million tons per year.

This could increase Qatar's production capacity(26.5%) of the world's total liquefied natural gas in competition with competitors such as Australia.

Farzad Ramezani Bonesh

Senior Researcher and Analyst of International Affairs