By Pratap John
Chief Business Reporter
ExxonMobil, the world’s largest integrated petroleum and natural gas company, is looking at boosting investments in Qatar, where it has already spent in excess of $13bn on numerous gas-related projects.
“We are absolutely convinced of the fact that Qatar is very strong and stable,” Exxon Mobil Corporation senior vice-president Mark W Albers told Gulf Times in an interview yesterday.
“Ours is a very special relationship with Qatar. ExxonMobil’s partnership with Qatar Petroleum is founded on the vision of HH the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani to maximise the economic advantage of natural resources and provide sustainable and long-term benefits to people,” said Albers.
“What ExxonMobil and Qatar Petroleum accomplished in the last 10 years was nothing but ‘remarkable’,” he added.
“We have built the world’s largest LNG trains and tankers. In less than 10 years, Qatar has emerged as the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas. It is a real testament of what an international oil company and national oil company can achieve, when they work together.”
He said the ExxonMobil–Qatar Petroleum partnership had a number of spin-off projects.
ExxonMobil is an anchor tenant at the Qatar Science & Technology Park. At the QSTP, ExxonMobil has been engaged in leading-edge research on environment management and LNG operational safety, which will benefit all the liquefied natural gas trains in the country.
ExxonMobil’s is an “integrated” approach when it comes to meeting the global energy demand, he said. Meeting the world’s growing energy needs requires an integrated set of solutions.
ExxonMobil is committed to accelerating gains in energy efficiency in its own operations, expanding all commercially viable energy sources and developing technology to help mitigate emissions growth that is associated with energy use.
“We have to tackle the energy demand and environmental and economic challenges simultaneously,” Albers said.
“We realise the fact that there are more than 1.5bn people in the world today who do not have any access to potable water or electricity. We need to develop proper technology that is cost-effective and whose benefits can be extended to people all over the world.”
That ExxonMobil and Qatar are committed to the global environment is “very clear” from their jointly-developing LNG projects.
“Liquefied natural gas is a good example of a fuel that produces 50% to 60% less carbon dioxide emissions than other choices such as coal for power generation. So by providing LNG from Qatar, we are helping the world reduce its carbon footprint,” Albers noted. |
