Qatar producing crude oil at full capacity: al-Sada

Qatar is producing crude oil at full capacity and sticking to its Opec quota, Minister of Energy and Industry HE Dr Mohamed bin Saleh al-Sada said yesterday. Al-Sada was on a state visit to South Korea. The two countries held a meeting to discuss energy and industrial co-operation in Seoul yesterday. Qatar has a combined oil and condensate output of 1.45mn bpd to 1.5mn bpd, al-Sada told reporters on the sidelines of the meeting. The country’s condensate output has been gradually increasing and is “almost now equivalent to crude oil,” he said. “We regard condensate as a crude oil.” Qatar plans to produce more condensate in the coming years and expects output to eventually exceed crude production, he added. Earlier in the day, South Korean Minister of Knowledge Economy Hong Sukwoo requested al-Sada to increase output at the Al-Shaheen oil field and give South Korean refiners priority in contracting the additional supply, the ministry said in a statement. South Korea, which relies on Iran for about 10% of its crude, has been buying more from Middle Eastern countries including Qatar, as importers of Iranian oil cut shipments globally ahead of US and EU sanctions. South Korea imported 26.754mn barrels of Qatari crude in the January-March quarter, equivalent to 294,000 bpd, up 8.3% from the same period last year, data from Korea National Oil Corporation showed. Local refiners currently import 75,000 bpd of Al-Shaheen’s output under long-term contracts, an official at the ministry’s energy resources policy division said. Qatar is one of the top five suppliers of crude oil and the top supplier of natural gas to South Korea. Crude-oil output by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries continued to rise in April, a Dow Jones survey showed, as Iraq offset a decline in Iran’s production, which hit a 20-year low after western sanctions over its nuclear programme hit oil exports.