ENERGY OPPORTUNITIES in QATAR: an OVERVIEW Big Power in a Small Package
Energy QOpportunitiesatar In a special report from Oil and Gas Investor and Global Business Reports ENERGY OPPORTUNITIES IN QATAR: AN OVERVIEW Big Power in a Small Package y any standards, the state of Qatar is small. With a pop- joined Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman and the United ulation barely over 800,000 and a land area (11,430 Arab Emirates in forming the Gulf Cooperation Council Bsquare kilometers) roughly three times smaller than (GCC) in 1981. Belgium, this barren, sandy peninsula jutting out like a raised Though Qatar was slowly finding its place in the world, thumb into the Persian Gulf, north of Saudi Arabia, would development was being gravely hampered by the continuous still be hidden in the shadows of anonymity if it were not for diversion of the country’s oil revenues into the personal its immense hydrocarbon reserves. coffers of the ruling emir. In a move to change this, the Despite its reduced size and ungrateful topography, Qatar current emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, took is currently making a big splash due to a combination of over the reins of power from his father in a bloodless easily accessible gas reservoirs and visionary leadership. This overthrow in 1995 that won the support of the ruling family, young nation is rubbing shoulders with the big boys of the the Qatari armed forces and Qatar’s international allies, hydrocarbon world and this has bought a taste for ambition. Qatar became independent on September 1, 1971, following a period of British protectorate status that began in 51”00’ 51”30’ 1916, after the Ottomans pulled out.
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