A gas pipeline in Qatar
Qatar restarts petchems drive
Doha’s gas is ready to go downstream again
Qatar is a natural home for petrochemicals production, given its huge reserves of low-cost gas and proximity to major Asian markets. But the country also lacks some of the motivations pushing its oil-rich regional counterparts along the downstream route—with a tiny population limiting the job-creation imperative and a brighter long-term demand outlook for gas compared with the oil on which its neighbours rely. Doha’s development of the petchems sector has thus moved in fits and starts, with the last nascent upswing in the mid-2010s abruptly stifled by an oil price collapse. But, rather overlooked in the headlines about the expansion of LNG export capacity in the North Field East (NFE) expans
Also in this section
15 May 2025
Financial problems, lack of exploration success and political dogma cause uncertainty across much of the region
14 May 2025
The invisible hand of the market has seen increasing transparency but much more needs to be done to build a better understanding
13 May 2025
A fall in Venezuelan output drives overall production lower, as Saudi Arabia starts to slowly bring more crude to the market
12 May 2025
With the gas industry’s staunchest advocates and opponents taking brutal blows, the sector looks like treading a path of insipid indifference
