Introduction

The Qatargas LNG project is suggestive of the many political, economic, and technical challenges inherent to first-in-country LNG export projects. In this chapter we examine the myriad factors that stalled the export of Qatar's massive gas resources for over twenty-five years from their first discovery in 1971 – as well as the alignment of political and economic interests that ultimately moved the project forward in the early 1990s. The Qatargas case is also a study of a “last-of-a-kind” LNG project. This case and the earlier Arun study (chapter 4 in this volume) bookend the period of Asia Pacific LNG projects characterized by the sole dominance of Japanese gas buyers with robust Japanese government support.

The North West Dome (now North Field) gas structure was discovered off the coast of Qatar by Shell in 1971, in the course of the company's prospecting for oil (see the maps in figures 8.1 and 8.2). An oil field would have been a much-preferred find at the time; gas was not a priority for the newly independent country awash in oil revenues. Oil exports were garnering the tiny country of 130,000 people $2 billion per year in 1975, growing to over $5 billion per year in 1980.

Only when the oil revenues started to wane in the early 1980s did gas exports slowly rise in importance to the Emir. Still, progress proceeded slowly. The Emir sought analysis and input from foreign advisers. Early plans prioritized domestic gas development over gas export projects.