Qatar’s energy sector performs very well; targets 4% annual growth in non-hydrocarbons until 2030′: Al-Kuwari

Qatar, whose energy sector is performing very well, has targeted an annual 4% growth in the non-hydrocarbons sector for the next six years through strategising key sectors as logistics, ICT (information, communication and technology), manufacturing and tourism, according to HE the Finance Minister Ali bin Ahmed al-Kuwari.

“Our energy sector is performing very well. We believe LNG will be transit energy for a long time,” he told the Qatar Economic Forum (QEF), Powered by Bloomberg.

“We are going to increase Qatar’s (liquefied natural gas or LNG) production by 85% in a phased manner until 2030. We are going to be reaching 142mn tonnes per annum of LNG,” he added.

In February this year, QatarEnergy, the country’s hydrocarbons behemoth, announced that it is proceeding with a new LNG expansion project, the “North Field West” project, to further raise Qatar’s LNG production capacity to 142mn tonnes per annum.

Extensive appraisal drilling and testing have confirmed that productive layers of Qatar’s giant North Field extend towards the west, which allows for developing a new LNG production project in Ras Laffan.

Highlighting that the country is embarking on the last phase of its journey toward the 2030 vision, he said the first phase focused on creating national champions such the Qatar Investment Authority and Ooredoo, which helped in building brand for the country.

In the second phase, he said Qatar invested more than QR300bn in developing infrastructure for the country, which stood in good stead as it successfully hosted the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

“We are building for Qatar’s future. What we are doing is for Qatar. The World Cup was only an event that helped us accelerate,” he said, adding “when you have such a mega event, it tells you to accelerate some of your, plans. So much of our infrastructure was accelerated for the World Cup.”

Post-2022 World Cup, the country moved forward with economic diversification and enabling the private sector, he said, adding the focus was on key sector such as logistics, ICT, manufacturing and tourism.

“We are going to be using enabling sectors…the financial sector is going to be one of the strong enablers to achieve these goals,” he said, targeting to grow the non-hydrocarbon by 4% a year until 2030.

He said the country has a well-crafted fiscal framework with different revenue scenarios and has a fixed formula to support the general budget, reduction of debt and investments by Qatar’s sovereign wealth as well as enhance the Qatar Central Bank reserves and build a cushion for a future volatility of the market.