In a bid to leverage on growing its LNG portfolio, Qatar has said it is exiting the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in 2019.
The decision was announced on Monday by the country’s Energy Minister, Saad al-Kaabi at a Doha press conference.
Al-Kaabi disclosed that Qatar would still continue to produce oil but would concentrate on gas production, noting, that the decision to leave OPEC was independent of the diplomatic spat with Saudi Arabia and UAE.
According to him, “We don’t have great potential in oil, we are very realistic. Our potential is gas,”
“This step by Qatar is an attempt to give more value to gas, which is usually costed against oil when companies make capital and operating expenditure decisions.
“The surprising move by Qatar may spur country’s like Nigeria, ninth largest exporter, to value their gas more and define a set of finance terms aimed at getting extra value from the natural resource.” He said.
This statement is coming just three days before another crucial meeting between the crude oil cartel and its alliance of non members on the sixth of December in Vienna, the Austrian capital. At that meet, OPEC will decide whether to reduce its production output further to mitigate against rising oil supplies.
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