According to a report by the US Bloomberg News Agency on April 19, Qatar’s oil minister Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiya said today that as China’s Asian country pays higher prices, the world’s largest liquefied natural gas ( Qatar, a producer of LNG, will export LNG, which was originally planned to be exported to the United States and Europe, to China.
Attiyah made the above remarks to media reporters when he arrived in Rome to attend the International Energy Forum. He said that the LNG supply agreement between Qatar and China signed this month merely shifted LNG from exporting to Europe and the United States to exporting to China. It is not a new output. "We don't do charity business. No matter who it is, as long as it gives me the best price, I will do business with him," said Attya.
China National Petroleum Corporation (PetroChina) and China’s largest LNG terminal owner China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) signed an agreement with Qatar on April 10 for the import of this clean fuel from Qatar from the beginning of 2009 .
Atiya said that when he met with Israeli Foreign Minister T. Livni on April 15th, he refused to supply natural gas to Israel because Qatar’s inventory of LNG was sold out.
Qatar, which has the world's third-largest gas reserves after Russia and Iran, currently produces 31 million tons of LNG annually. Qatar's annual LNG production will increase to 77 million tons by 2010.