Qatar is open to invest in development of a new German LNG terminal, says Al Sada

HH The Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani is currently on a working visit to Germany, where he will inaugurate a joint Qatar-German meeting to facilitate investments in the two countries.

With camaraderie between the two nations at an all-time high, more joint projects are likely to come up soon.

One such likely project was hinted at by Qatar’s Minister for Energy and Industry HE Dr Mohamed bin Saleh Al Sada yesterday.

The top official said Qatar Petroleum, the world’s top supplier of liquefied natural gas (LNG), was likely to work on building a German LNG terminal, reported Gulf Times.

While Al Sada said discussions were currently under way, he added that it would be premature to talk about specific investment terms as that would depend on the terminal’s size.

QP had earlier said it was in talks with Germany’s RWE and Uniper about co-operating on a potential LNG terminal.

“As a matter of principle, Qatar is interested,” Al Sada said.

“Certainly it should be a win-win situation. Both parties should benefit from such a thing. If Germany lent itself to such a suggestion — if we’re invited to do so — we’ll be happy,” he added.

Al Sada said Qatar was also keen to export LNG to Germany, highlighting its environmental advantages, the reliability of Qatar’s deliveries and that it could help Germany to diversify its energy supply.

Meanwhile, Al Sada also called for oil-producing countries to boost investment in the oil and gas sector, given a recovery in the price of oil, but said he did not back setting any specific targets for such investment.

Al Sada was confident the issue would be addressed during a meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC countries in Algeria at the end of the month, reported Qatar Tribune.

“While the oil price has been recovering, the only thing now is to see an adequate level of investment going back to the oil sector,” Al Sada said.

Boosting such investments is important to ensure secure oil supplies in the future. He said failure to invest back would bring about catastrophic results in the next two to three years.