By Joseph Varghese/Staff Reporter

Ben Barbour, the Qatar-based Msheireb resident artist, will travel from Doha to South Hook in Wales, Europe’s largest re-gasification terminal, on one of Nakilat’s Q-Flex, state-of-the-art LNG tankers managed by Shell International Shipping and Trading Ltd. The journey will be part of the Qatar-UK 2013 Year of Culture celebrations.
The announcement was made yesterday by officials from Qatargas and Qatar-UK 2013 during a press conference at the Qatargas headquarters. The journey will follow the historic pearl trade routes, during which Barbour will capture observations and objects from both the past and present in his art. The entire voyage will be completed in 20 days.
Speaking on the occasion, Abdurrahman Mohamed al-Mulla, shipping manager at Qatargas, said: “Qatar has always depended on the sea. Traditionally, our people have earned their livelihood based on pearling and fishing. Today, as the world’s largest LNG supplier, we still depend on the sea to deliver LNG to our customers throughout the world on our fleet of LNG carriers, the biggest fleet of LNG vessels in existence - our ‘floating pipeline’.”
Al-Mulla pointed out that the support of Qatargas for this venture was reflected the importance attached to arts and culture as key focus areas of its corporate social responsibility programme. “As the platinum sponsor of Qatar-UK 2013 Year of Culture, Qatargas is already supporting various cultural events and exhibitions in both the countries,” he added.
Barbour, who is a celebrated professional and an extraordinary talent with deep roots in documenting Qatar’s remarkable journey, said: “It has been a lifelong dream to take part in a journey of this kind. I feel very honoured to be able to contribute to the Year of Culture, documenting not only the past, but also some of the shared similarities between Qatar and the UK.”
During the voyage, Barbour will also focus on the community of individuals onboard the tanker, collecting and retelling the personal stories of the crew as well as organising workshops for them. While following the old pearl trade routes, Barbour will regularly post updates online; they can be followed on the Qatar UK 2013 Facebook page - facebook.com/QatarUK2013.
Aisha Ghanem al-Attiya of Qatar-UK 2013 from the Qatar Museums Authority; Martin Hope, director of British Council Qatar; Samir Bailouni, director (fleet) at Nakilat; and Rahul Deep Singh, Qatargas 4 governance and commercial manager at Qatar Shell, also took part in the press conference and addressed the gathering.
Culminating with an exhibition at Katara - the Cultural Village - in October and in Wales later in the year, the trip’s purpose is to deepen the understanding of Qatar’s unprecedented economic development from dependence on the natural resources provided by the sea through economic diversity powered by the oil and gas sector, and the vision for creation of a knowledge-based economy by 2030.