Qatar’s energy sector is a story of potential very much fulfilled. A sleepy backwater until its wealth began to explode as a result of its astute liquefied natural gas (LNG) development strategy, Qatar is, on a per capita basis, by far the Gulf Cooperation Council’s leading hydrocarbons exporter.
Qatar has the world's third largest gas reserves, after only Russia and Iran, at 25,400 billion cubic metres, or 13.5% of the global total. Discovered in the 1980s, the huge offshore North Field gives Qatar energy revenue security such that a moratorium on further development, imposed in 2005, is unlikely to be removed until around 2016, if ever.
