A surge in gas production boosted Qatar's LNG export earnings to an all time high in 2010, far exceeding its crude oil revenue and catapulting the OPEC Gulf country to the top place on the world rich list, the Emirates 24 TV news online said on Thursday. From QR94.8 billion ($25.9 billion) in 2009, the country's sales of liquefied natural gas and associated products leaped to nearly 142 billion in 2010, it said, citing Qatari central bank annual report. The gas income last year was nearly double Qatar's oil export revenue of around QR74 billion, earned from nearly 800,000 bpd of crude supplies. Last year's gas income followed the completion of mega LNG projects at the gigantic offshore North Field, the world's largest single reservoir of non-associated gas, with estimated proven reserves of nearly 25 trillion cubic meters. The installation of more production trains in 2010 allowed Qatar to achieve its targeted output of 77 million tons per year nearly 15 years after it launched the Middle East's largest gas development program. The sharp rise in gas income largely offset oil price fluctuations and this allowed Qatar to record one of the world's highest GDP growth rates. IMF data showed Qatar's real GDP jumped by around 16.6 percent in 2010 and is forecast to pick up by 18.7 percent in 2011. Qatar's GDP shot up by nearly 26.8 per cent in 2007 and 25.4 per cent in 2008 before growth tumbled to only 8.7 per cent in 2009 following a sharp drop in oil prices in the wake of the 2008 global fiscal distress. But growth in 2009 is considered high compared with the rates recorded in other parts of the world, where it dipped to near zero or recorded negative growth. Qatar launched LNG projects in early 1990s to tap the massive gas wealth of the 6,000-square-km North Field, which contains nearly 15 percent of the world's total natural gas deposits, according to Qatari estimates.
