The Ministry of Culture organized, tonight, a seminar on the history and development of the energy industry in Qatar, within Ramadan tent accompanying Ramadan Book Fair, which is currently being held at the Darb Al-Saai headquarters in Umm Salal.
The seminar was attended by His Excellency Sheikh Abdul Rahman bin Hamad Al Thani, the Minister of Culture, and a number of Their Excellencies Sheikhs, former officials, intellectuals and intellectuals.
His Excellency Mr. Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, the Deputy Prime Minister and former Minister of Energy and Industry, spoke during the seminar, on the story of the prosperity of the energy sector in Qatar, including oil and gas and related industries, as he was a witness to the most important stages of the development of this sector, referring to the beginnings of its establishment.
He also reviewed the process of Qatari gas production when oil was being extracted from small scattered fields in the Qatari territorial waters in the Arabian Gulf since the sixties of the last century. The beginnings go back to the discovery of the North Gas Field, which is considered one of the largest gas fields in the world, on a marine area of more than 6,000 square kilometers, and these are the same areas where oil is found at different depths.
He stated that there was no economic feasibility for gas at that time, but with the passage of years and the development of scientific discoveries, it became clear that the North Gas Field contains reserves of more than 900 trillion cubic feet, which represents 20 percent of the global gas reserves, which placed the State of Qatar in the third rank in the world in terms of reserves after the Russian Federation and Iran, after which Qatar gas was established in 1984, which developed, produced and marketed natural gas and its derivatives to the world.
In his speech, His Excellency discussed in detail the stages of development of the LNG industry in Qatar, the challenges it faced, and how to manage international negotiations to open markets for gas exports to Japan, Korea, China and India, then towards a number of other Asian countries, which paved the way for opening new markets in Europe, describing Qatari gas as “rich gas” because it contains multiple materials and derivatives that the country benefited from in expanding its petrochemical industries, building the largest gas refinery, and exporting production to 99 countries around the world.
His Excellency Mr. Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah discussed the development story in the petroleum sector and the challenges it faced, considering that Qatari expertise contributed to all these achievements. Thanks to its efficiency and the quality of its training in Qatari universities, which supplied the Qatari petroleum field with highly professional cadres, referring to the development of power stations, which represented one of the most important challenges to the development of the energy sector, so attention was paid to them until the establishment of the Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (KAHRAMAA), which was A major driver in the path of development in the fields of energy and industry in general in the country.
His Excellency Sheikh Abdul Rahman bin Hamad Al Thani, the Minister of Culture, accompanied the guests of Ramadan Book Fair, on a tour in which they visited a number of local and international publishing houses, and were briefed on the latest publications.
It is worth mentioning that Ramadan Book Fair will be held from March 30 to April 5, at the Darb Al-Saai headquarters in Umm Salal, with the participation of 79 local, Arab and international publishing houses, and it will be accompanied by many other cultural events.