Qatar has opened a new production facility for liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the emirate and also received the first shipment at a new terminal in the Adriatic Sea, helping to consolidate its position as the world's leading LNG exporter.
The country is rapidly expanding its exploitation of the world's largest gas resource, known as the North Field, and expects to bring four new LNG plants into production this year, doubling its export capacity to 62 million tonnes a year.
Another two plants will be added next year, boosting Qatar's capacity to 77 million tonnes a year.
Explaining why Qatar could expand its LNG exports even as demand has been hit by the global recession, the credit rating agency Fitch said: "Qatar is strategically located for deliveries to all major gas consuming regions."
The start-up of Rasgas Train 6 coincided with the beginning of operations at an Italian LNG receiving terminal that is 90 per cent owned by the partners in Rasgas, Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil.
On Wednesday, the first LNG cargo arrived at the Adriatic LNG terminal, which sits on a concrete platform off the coast of southern Italy.
ExxonMobil, which has contributed proprietary technology to both the Rasgas and Adriatic LNG ventures, said the Italian facility was unique, "the first offshore gravity-based structure in the world for unloading, storage and regasification of LNG".
The massive concrete structure on the seabed houses two storage tanks for the supercooled liquid, a plant for restoring it to gaseous form, and facilities for mooring and unloading LNG tankers.
When the terminal reaches full capacity later this year, it will be able to deliver 775 million cubic feet per day of gas to the Italian mainland, supplying about 10 per cent of Italy's gas requirements.
By locating the gas terminal offshore, the project's partners - which also include Edison of Italy - were able to avoid community protests over potential safety issues of the type that have plagued, and often derailed, projects to build LNG import terminals elsewhere in Europe and North America.
The project pushes forward plans by the EU to diversify Europe's energy supplies and reduce dependence on Russian gas, at the same time helping Qatar gain new customers for its most important export at a time when the world is glutted with LNG.
Saad al Kaabi, the director of oil and gas ventures for Qatar Petroleum and the chairman of Adriatic LNG, said: "The Adriatic LNG terminal will further expand Qatar's global reach and provide a diverse and secure energy supply for Italy."
Rasgas is Qatar's second LNG venture after Qatargas. The two enterprises are both majority owned by Qatar Petroleum, the Qatari state oil and gas company, in partnership with major western energy companies.
While other leading LNG exporters such as Indonesia, Algeria and Malaysia rely on an older generation of production facilities, Qatar has moved rapidly over the past few years to establish an efficiency and cost advantage with larger, more modern plants that can accommodate the biggest LNG tankers ever built.
Qatargas inaugurated the first of Qatar's new generation of production plants in April, and exported its first cargo from the facility to a recently built receiving terminal at Milford Haven, in Wales.
The new production plants are each capable of producing 7.8 million tonnes of LNG a year.
Neil Duffin, the president of ExxonMobil Development, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil, said: "Advanced technologies, strong project execution skills and economies of scale have reduced the cost of producing and transporting LNG, thereby extending our ability to bring LNG to more people around the world."
Qatar has the world's third- biggest gas reserves after Russia and Iran. Until this year, it mostly exported LNG to the Asia-Pacific
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
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Tips for job-seekers
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Section 375
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Director: Sriram Raghavan
Producer: Matchbox Pictures, Viacom18
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Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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Director: Ismael Ferroukhi
Stars: Zakaria Inan, Sabrina Ouazani
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Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
In numbers
1,000 tonnes of waste collected daily:
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800 tonnes of RDF replaces 500 tonnes of coal
Two conveyor lines treat more than 350,000 tonnes of waste per year
25 staff on site
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
