Doha, December 03 (QNA) - The State of Qatar participated in the 7th IEF-IGU Ministerial Gas Forum that took place via video conference.
The conference was hosted by the Malaysian government in cooperation with the International Energy Forum under the theme "Towards Recovery and Shared Prosperity: Natural Gas Opportunities for a Sustainable World."
The State of Qatar was represented in the meeting by HE Minister of State for Energy Affairs Saad bin Sherida Al Kaabi, who is also the President and CEO of Qatar Petroleum. His Excellency participated in a roundtable discussion under the title "Opportunities in Growing Gas Markets: Producer-Consumer Perspectives on New Realities."
HE the Minister of State highlighted the impact of the COVID pandemic and its heavy toll on world economies, which has disrupted many aspects of life with an agonizing human toll, and an unprecedented disruption to the growth and prosperity many countries had hoped to achieve.
"While we mark one year of life with COVID-19, we are still coming to terms with its short and long-term impacts on the global economy, and are trying to assess the over-reaching brunt on the energy sector and particularly on the gas industry," HE Al Kaabi said.
His Excellency noted that a post-COVID world will be different, and that it will require a new way of thinking on how to manage economies and the relationship with the environment.
His Excellency maintained however that that "with challenges often come opportunities," stressing the need for stronger producer-consumer collaboration as an important path to recovery. He also stressed Qatars efforts to keep the environment front and center across the whole LNG value chain.
"Lower CO 2 emissions and carbon capture and sequestration are part of the basic design of our new LNG facilities being built as part of the North Filed Expansion projects, which will raise our
production to 126 million tons per annum by 2027. Qatar Petroleum is implementing a series of projects and initiatives to reduce gas emissions, and to capture and sequester more than 7 million tons of CO2 per annum by 2027, placing us firmly on the road to becoming a leader in the de-carbonization of the LNG value chain," His Excellency said.
HE the minister of state expressed his optimism regarding the future of the LNG industry, saying, "I believe that the economic and environmental realities of the post COVID-19 era will help increase the competitiveness of LNG. And I have no doubt that the best for the LNG industry is yet to come." (QNA)