According to Minister of State for Energy Affairs and President/CEO of Qatar Petroleum HE Saad Sherida Al Kaabi, energy will continue to be a key to global growth and development on the road to recovery in the post-COVID world, and that natural gas will continue to be a cornerstone in the low-carbon energy transition.

HE Al Kaabi joined the 7th Ministerial Gas Forum that was inaugurated and attended by the Prime Minster of Malaysia, HE Tan Sri Muhyidden Yassin. The forum was organised by the government of Malaysia in cooperation with the International Energy Forum (lEF) and the International Gas Union (lGU).

7th Ministerial Gas Forum

HE Al Kaabi made the remarks during the virtual Ministerial Roundtable, ‘Opportunities in Growing Gas Markets: Producer-Consumer Perspectives on New Realities’.

The minister highlighted the impact of the COVID-19 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 noted that a post-COVID world will be different, and that it will require a new way of thinking on how to manage the economies and relationship with the environment.

This is where, I believe, natural gas plays a pivotal role and displays its most important economic and environmental qualities.

Minister Al Kaabi told the ministerial roundtable that ‘with challenges often come opportunities’, stressing the need for stronger producer-consumer collaboration as an important path to recovery.

The minister also highlighted Qatar’s efforts to keep the environment front and centre across the whole LNG value chain. He said that lower CO2 emissions and carbon capture and sequestration are part of the basic design of the new LNG facilities being built as part of the North Field Expansion projects, which will raise production to 126 million tonnes per annum by 2027.

Qatar Petroleum is also implementing a series of projects and initiatives to reduce gas emissions, and to capture and sequester more than 7 million tonnes of CO2 per annum by 2027, placing Qatar firmly on the road to becoming a leader in the de-carbonization of the LNG value chain.

HE Al Kaabi voiced a positive note on the future of the LNG industry, saying that 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.

The Ministerial Gas Forum is an important platform for dialogue between ministers, CEOs and industry experts, focusing on relevant issues revolving around the role of natural gas in emerging markets, where Asia is the main driver of demand. It aims to identify and advance energy policies and business strategies that support the dynamic evolution of global gas markets.