Qatar to invest $170bn in projects

Qatar is planning to pump a staggering $170 billion into projects in the next 11 years and nearly $140 billion will be allocated for infrastructure, the Gulf country’s finance minister was quoted on Tuesday as saying.

The remaining funds will be channeled into oil and gas projects, which have already received more than $100 billion over the past decade.

"Investments in infrastructure projects alone will be around $140 billion," the minister Yousuf Hussein Kamal told a conference in Doha on Monday in an opening address carried by local newspapers.

He said Qatar’s GDP, one of the fastest growing in the world, would race by more than 18 per cent in 2011 because of a sharp rise in oil prices and a surge in the country’s LNG exports following the completion of mega projects to reach the 77 million tonnes output target.

"If oil prices averaged around $70, then our GDP could grow by more than 18 per cent…growth will be higher if oil prices exceeded that average and I think this will create a large surplus in our budget," he said.

His figures showed Qatar had pumped over $75 billion into infrastructure projects during 2004-2010 while the value of total projects under way by the end of January surpassed $85 billion.

Kamal said Qatar needs to invest massive funds in infrastructure and utilities to host the world cup in 2022.

Qatar has the world’s third largest natural gas reserves after Russia and Iran, estimated at around 25 trillion cubic metres. But immense projects carried out over the past 15 to tap its giant North Field turned it into the world’s top supplier of liquefied natural gas, with an output of 77 million tonnes per year.

Qatar also produces nearly 800,000 bpd of oil and this has allied with a rapid growth in LNG exports to allow it to record one of the highest economic growth rates in the world.

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