2022 Year in Review

Qatar is a major gas exporter. Specifically, in 2020 it was the second-largest
exporter of natural gas in the world. This is because the emirate holds the thirdlargest
gas reserves in the world after Russia and Iran. It also shares the world’s
largest gas reserve with Iran. Earlier this year Qatar opened the Barzan gas plant,
which has been responsible for driving the Middle East’s growing energy exports.
Between January and September of this year, Qatar was the third largest
liquified natural gas (LNG) exporter to the European Union (EU) behind the
United States and Russia. However, Doha has been stern in its
acknowledgement that Qatari gas will not be able to replace Russian gas. The
reason for this is two-fold.
Firstly, there are no direct pipelines between Qatar and Europe through which to
transport LNG. This means that Qatari energy would have to be shipped to
Europe in liquefied form, which is an energy-intensive process that considerably
offsets the climate benefits of using natural gas. The lack of infrastructure was
brought up by Qatar at the Gas Exporting Countries Forum. It was noted that
significant investment and long-term contractual certainty were essential to
supply Europe with gas.
Secondly, Qatar must uphold its contractual obligations of non-diversion to its
Asian consumers. Approximately 80% of Qatar’s LNG is exported to Asia with
South Korea, India, China and Japan as its biggest importers. With LNG exports
already allocated to these states, Qatar must produce more LNG to meet the
demands of both its Asian and new European clients. This muddies Qatar’s
capacity to become Europe’s outright energy saviour.
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