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 QATAR
Arabia/Persian Gulf
Qatar produces the least oil of the Middle Eastern
OPEC producers but is a major exporter of gas and LNG from the giant
offshore North field, the largest gas field in the world. It also
produces substantial quantities of condensate and NGLs.
In order to rapidly exploit the North field the country
has been drilling more offshore development wells than Saudi Arabia. As
well as increasing LNG exports new gas pipelines are under construction
or being planned to other Gulf countries. Two companies produce LNG,
QatarGas and RasGas, both affiliates of the national oil company, Qatar
Petroleum, which succeeded the Qatar General Petroleum Corporation (QGPC)
in 2001.
 The search for oil in Qatar began in 1935 when the
Anglo-Persian Oil Company was granted an onshore concession but its
licence was transferred to Petroleum Development Qatar (later Qatar
Petroleum Company, QPC) and in 1938 this company discovered Qatar’s
largest oil field, the onshore Dukhan field. It was producing 40,000
Bbls per day up to WW2 before production ceased, resuming at
progressively higher rates after the war.
Licences were then offered for offshore regions and the
first discovery was made in May 1960 when Shell discovered the
Idd-al-Shargi field, 95 km east of the northern tip of the peninsula. In
December 1960 Shell discovered the Maydan Mahzam field nearby and both
were brought into production rapidly.
Shell went on to discover a third field, Bul Hanine, in
1970, which began producing in 1972. Offshore output surpassed onshore
output from Dukhan for the first time. A fourth field, al-Bunduq, was
also found in the south straddling the border with Abu Dhabi. Output
from here is shared 50:50 with Abu Dhabi.
Maersk drilled the Al-Shaheen field beneath the North
Field and brought it into production in 1994 at 15,000 Bbls per day,
rising to 120,000 Bbls per day by 1999 and 150,000 Bbls per day by 2000,
plus 1 Bcm per year of gas. Arco discovered the Al-Rayyan field in 1994,
which came onstream in 1996 at 10,000 Bbls per day. Occidental also
redeveloped the so-called North and South Domes of the Idd al Shargi
field with a capacity of 100,000 Bbls per day.
Excluding the North field Qatar has 6 offshore producing
fields. Projects to raise capacity at the declining Bul-Hanine and
Maydan Mahzam fields and deliver associated gas to the North gas field
facilities are in progress. Phase 3 of Total’s Al-Khaleej project in
Block 6 is also adding capacity. Maersk Oil has a project to raise
capacity at the Al-Shaheen field with 70 wells and deliver associated
gas to the North gas field facilities and BP is to redevelop the
Al-Rayyan offshore field. In November 2003 expansion plans for the
Al-Karkara and A-North fields were finalised.
Qatar has also solved its border dispute with Saudi
Arabia and Bahrain and if fields lie along the former disputed areas
they are likely to be rapidly developed.
The North Field: The North Field, which has
non-associated gas reserves in the Khuff formation estimated at over 14
Tcm, covers an area of 6000 sq km in shallow waters northeast of the
Qatari peninsula. It may also contain 6 Bn Bbls of recoverable liquids
but volumes have not been announced.
The field was discovered in 1979 and accounts for 98% of
Qatar’s gas with most of the rest being associated gas in the onshore
Dukhan field and the offshore Bul Hanine and Maydan Mahzam fields. Small
parts of the field extend onshore in the south but all output is assumed
to be of offshore origin.
Since the North field is so large there is little
incentive to explore for gas elsewhere in Qatar. Completion of Phase 1
of the North field development was in August 1991 and comprised 8
interconnected platforms and a processing plant where liquids and gas
streams are sent to a coastal terminal at Ras Laffan through two 80 km
pipelines. Here they are pumped to Messaid for further processing and
export.
Output for the domestic market reached 9.1 Bcm per year
in 1992 plus 35,000 Bbls per day of condensate. It rose to 11.4 Bcm per
year in 1993. By September 1996 another zone of the field had been
developed by QatarGas, which began production into its LNG train at 7.3
Bcm per year rising to 8.29 Bcm in 1997.
The other LNG company, RasGas, then began producing in
April 1999 at a rate of 4.1 Bcm per year to feed its first liquefaction
train. It stepped up production to 9.1 Bcm per year in April 2000 after
its second train came onstream and took surplus gas from QatarGas.
Condensate and LPG levels also rose so that by 2001 the field was
producing over 140,000 Bbls per day of liquids.
The development of the North Field has given rise to a
number of downstream projects. Along with development of petrochemical,
fertiliser and methanol plants, a master plan was drawn up in 2000 to
rationalise exploitation. One element of this plan is the Enhanced Gas
Utilisation Project, operated by ExxonMobil in which a designated zone
of the field produces gas for the domestic market. Output from this
project is rising and part of the volume will eventually be exported to
Kuwait by pipeline whilst part will help support the Dolphin project.
The Dolphin Project was launched in 1998 and involves
construction of an 800 km subsea pipeline to Abu Dhabi with the capacity
to deliver 31 Bcm per year although only 20 Bcm per year will be sold at
first. Links between Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Oman will be added
afterwards. The Dolphin Project has been driven by the needs of the UAE
and Oman to use more natural gas for power generation and industrial
uses, and the decline in their own associated gas.
Although a third project was originally considered in the
mid 1990s for a pipeline to deliver 16.5 Bcm per year from Qatar to
Pakistan it has not begun and it is doubtful since imports from Iran
into Pakistan are more likely.
In 2004 Qatar Petroleum and Qatar Shell GTL Limited
signed an integrated Development and Production Sharing Agreement that
provides the fiscal and legal terms for the Pearl GTL project and
development of another zone within the North field to feed it. The
project comprises the installation of upstream gas production facilities
and an onshore GTL plant that will produce up to 140,000 Bbls per day of
GTL products plus significant volumes of associated condensate and LPGs.
The project will be developed in two phases with the
first phase operational in 2009 and the second in 2011. The aim of the
GTL project is to introduce a strategic diversification of energy
supply. The Pearl plant will produce a range of products, primarily
naphtha and transport fuels, with a smaller quantity of normal paraffins
and lubricant base oils. As a transport fuel GTL can be used in light
and heavy-duty diesel vehicles, and its low emissions performance has
the potential to reduce pollution in major cities.
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