Al Attiyah News

Qatar's Ministry of Defense has signed an agreement with Italian shipbuilding group Fincantieri evaluate and study new technologies and capabilities, possibly leading to a future acquisition of new vessels in 2020.Fincantier said it signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Barzan Holding, a company wholly owned by the Qatari Ministry of Defense and responsible for empowering the military capabilities of the national armed force in the state, in Doha, on Friday.The programs indicated in the MOU include…

Fincantieri and the Qatari Ministry of Defense have signed a contract in Rome today for the construction of seven new generation units included in the national naval acquisition program. The signing took place between the Commander of Qatar Emiri Naval Forces, Staff Major General Mohammed Nasser Al Mohannadi and the CEO of Fincantieri, Giuseppe Bono, in the presence of the Ministers of Defense of the two countries, Khalid bin Mohammed Al Attiyah and Roberta Pinotti. The contract, amounting for Fincantieri to approximately 4 billion euros, envisages the supply of seven surface vessels, of which four corvettes of over 100 meters in length…

Qatar Petroleum (QP) on behalf of the Government of the State of Qatar has signed a new Exploration and Production Sharing Agreement (EPSA) with Shell and PetroChina Company Limited (PetroChina) for Qatar Block D. The agreement was signed in Doha by His Excellency Abdulla bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy and Industry, Peter Voser, Chief Executive Officer of Royal Dutch Shell plc, and Mr. Zhao Dong, Chief Financial Officer of PetroChina International Investment Company Limited. Under the agreement, the partners will jointly explore for natural gas in Block D. Block D covers an area of 8,089 square kilometres onshore and offshore Qatar and is located close to Ras Laffan. The Block D concession is for pre-Khuff geological intervals.

Qatar Gas Transport Company Ltd. (NAKILAT) has signed a joint venture agreement with Damen Shipyards Qatar Holding B.V., a wholly owned subsidiary of Damen Shipyards Group, to jointly operate a shipbuilding facility in the Port of Ras Laffan, Qatar. His Excellency Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy and Industry, and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Nakilat, said: “Our vision is for the new shipyard to become a centre of excellence…

Qatargas, Shell and PetroChina signed binding sales and purchase agreements that will lead to the long-term supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG) originating from The State of Qatar to the rapidly growing Chinese market. The agreements were signed in by His Excellency Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy and Industry of Qatar, Jiang Jiemin, President of National Petroleum Corporation and Chairman of PetroChina Company Ltd and Ms. Linda Cook, Executive Director of Royal Dutch Shell plc. The LNG will be provided from the Qatargas 4 project in and shipped to PetroChina’s LNG receiving terminals upon the start-up of commercial operations of these facilities. The agreements are for 3 million tons per annum of LNG for 25 years.

ConocoPhillips and Qatar Petroleum International (QPI) announced that the two companies have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to pursue and develop international energy projects outside of Qatar. The MOU was signed on behalf of QPI by His Excellency Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy and Industry of Qatar, and by James J. Mulva, ConocoPhillips chairman and chief executive officer. Senior officials from both parties also attended the event, including Nasser Al-Jaidah, QPI chief executive officer, and William Bullock Jr., ConocoPhillips president, Middle East and North Africa. "Today's signing marks another milestone in Qatar Petroleum's realizing our ambition of becoming a leading global energy company…

U.S. By early afternoon, crude oil for February delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange was trading at $28.30 a barrel, a 35-cent rise, taking total gains in the last six trading sessions to $2.50 a barrel, or ten percent. A statement by OPEC Secretary-General Ali Rodriguez on Sunday spurred the day's advance. Rodriguez, the former energy minister of Venezuela said on Sunday that the 11-member producers' cartel had a consensus to cut crude oil supplies but had not decided by how much. "For the time being there is a consensus to cut but how much we don't know," Rodriguez said. Rodriguez's remarks came after the former Venezuelan energy minister met with departing U.S. Energy Secretary Richardson in Vienna.

Oil prices steadied on Tuesday after a technical rout the previous day wiped more than 60 cents off a barrel of crude, although prices remain firm on expectations OPEC will curb output soon. U.S. benchmark light, sweet crude stood 12 cents up at $27.44 a barrel, after losing 63 cents in New York on Monday. London's Brent crude futures dropped 74 cents to $24.43 a barrel. OPEC officials have said recently there is consensus among the cartel's 11 members for output restraints as peak winter demand dwindles with warmer spring temperatures in the second quarter. Qatari Oil Minister Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah was quoted as saying on Monday that OPEC should cut by at least two million barrels per day (bpd) to avoid any major price slump, a figure also preferred by Kuwait.

Qatargas has named the first two Q-Flex LNG vessels - Al Ruwais and Al Safliya - at a ceremony held at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Ltd. (DSME) ship building yard in Geoje Island. The ceremony which was presided over by His Excellency Abdullah Bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Energy and Industry and Mr. Neil Duffin, President of ExxonMobil Development Co. officially named the two ships which are the first of 45 large LNG ships to be delivered for Qatar. The Al Ruwais and Al Safliya will be used to ship LNG produced in Qatargas 2, Train 4 to customers in Europe. They are the first of 14 ships that are being built in Korea to service Qatargas Trains 4 and 5.

In a joint statement issued at the conclusion of an inauguration ceremony held in Doha, Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil Ras Laffan (III) Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Exxon Mobil Corporation, announced the launch of Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Company Limited (RL3). RL3 is a further expansion of the existing LNG production facilities operated by RasGas Company Limited (Qatar Petroleum 70 percent; ExxonMobil 30 percent) at Ras Laffan Industrial city in North Eastern Qatar. This project is planned to bring the total number of trains operated by RasGas to seven (Trains 1 and 2 in RL, 3 through 5 in RL II and 6 and 7 in RL 3) and is expected to increase RasGas LNG production capacity by more than 70 percent. Full-chain investment in RL 3 is estimated at near $14 billion.

Qatar Petroleum and ConocoPhillips has signed a Heads of Agreement for the development of Qatargas 3, a large-scale liquefied natural gas (LNG) project located in Qatar servicing the U.S. natural gas market. The signing ceremony took place at the Qatari Embassy in Washington, D.C., and was attended by Qatar's Minister of Energy and Industry and Chairman of Qatar Petroleum H.E. Abdullah Bin Hamad Al Attiyah, U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham, and ConocoPhillips President and Chief Executive Officer Jim Mulva. The agreement provides the framework for the necessary project agreements and the completion of key feasibility studies. "We welcome this prospect of a long-term partnership with ConocoPhillips," said H.E. Al Attiyah.

OPEC's president said last week that it was too early for the oil producers' group to explore the possibility of extending a global supply curb pact beyond March. "It would be premature to speculate whether a decision will be a rollover or otherwise," Abdullah al-Attiyah, also Qatar's oil minister, told Reuters in an interview. The cartel, which is enjoying renewed clout in sensitive world oil markets since it cut a supply restraint deal with non-OPEC producers in March, is trying to build on the success of the agreement. OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia and Iran have suggested that the cuts could be extended beyond their expiry in March if market conditions warrant.

Oil prices last Tuesday (Oct. 26) consolidated recent gains, moving sideways after a bounce last week. International benchmark Brent crude traded seven cents higher $22.90 a barrel after leaping 80 cents on Oct. 22. The gains came after fresh signals from oil producers including the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) that they would consider extending the duration of limits on exports. On Tuesday Omani Oil Minister Mohammad bin Hamad Seif al-Ramhi said he backed a continuation of the cuts beyond their expiry in March. Oman is one of a handful of non-OPEC producers that took part in global output cuts that rescued oil prices from less than $10 earlier this year.

OPEC oil producers will need to invest $60 billion by 2010 to meet world oil demand, the group's president said. "To maintain its 1995 production level and make its proportionate share of the additional amounts, OPEC would need to invest about $60 billion by the year 2010 and another $250 billion by 2020," Abdullah al-Attiyah, also Qatari oil minister, told a conference. "World oil demand, which was about 70 million barrels per day in 1995, is expected to be more than 90 million bpd in 2010 and more than 100 million bpd in 2020," he added. "OPEC will attract substantial investment capital, because, in addition to having the world's largest reserves, they also have some of the lowest production costs in the world," Attiyah said.

Oil prices rocketed to a new nine-year high Nov. 22 after Iraq suspended oil exports under its humanitarian exchange program with the United Nations. London January Brent futures opened at $25.90, the highest oil price since January 1991 when allied forces were preparing to eject Iraqi troops from Kuwait. Prices leapt as Iraq's Oil Minister Amir Mohammed Rasheed confirmed that Iraq had stopped oil deliveries under the latest six-month phase of its oil-for-food exchange with the UN. Baghdad protested the UN's proposal to extend by two weeks the sixth phase of the program and accused the United States of trying to push other Security Council members into accepting a draft resolution on weapons inspections.