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told Reuters that a 50,000-strong workforce is working on the project and that twice as much concrete has been poured compared to that used to construct the world’s tallest building – Dubai’s Burj Khalifa. Qatar’s abundance of hydrocarbons are in hot demand, especially among emerging Asian economies. The US even received its first ever shipment of Qatar LNG in December. This is a process where the gas is cooled to 160°C, shrinking it by 600 times its original size. LNG, which is about twice as clean to burn as oil, is then shipped around the world in supertankers. In order to meet growing demand, investment has been made into its fleet of transportation vessels. “This has enabled Qatar to reach new markets that are otherwise not accessible, such as China, Japan and Europe,” Anani explains. “This is in addition to positively reducing the heavy cost of transporting LNG due to economies of scale, which in turn made Qatari LNG more competitive.” Dr
Eckart Woertz, Program Manager of Economics at the Gulf Research Centre, says Qatar is “heavily dependent” on energy exports. “Its challenge will be to enhance the value chain of its oil production into petrochemicals and heavy industries and prudent management of its foreign assets.”
In the pipeline One the major gas projects in the world right now is the Dolphin gas pipeline, which was conceived in 1999 to produce, process and transport natural gas from Qatar's North Field to the UAE and Oman, in order to support long-term industrial growth. The North Field is key to Qatar’s natural gas development and production plans. The project is one of the largest trans-border energy projects ever undertaken in the Middle East. The US$7 billion project has brought together three GCC nations – the UAE, Qatar and Oman