Opec secretary general Abdalla Salem el-Badri will deliver ‘The 2014 Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah International Energy Awards Lecture’ at the Museum of Islamic Art here on April 8.
The keynote speech by Opec’s head will address an international energy audience, supported by Shell, on the outlook for global energy security in light of Russia’s dramatic standoff with the West over Moscow’s seizure of the Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula, which has stoked fears of possible gas supply disruptions to Europe, which relies on Russia for 25% of its gas imports, the vast majority of which is transported through Ukrainian territory.
European countries, including Germany, have sought to speed up diversification of their natural gas supplies since Russia cut off deliveries to Ukraine and other parts of the European Union in 2006 and 2009 over disputes related to pricing and supplies.
Europe is now looking to raise imports of liquefied natural gas, including from Qatar, the world’s largest exporter of the super-cooled fuel that already supplies about 10% of the bloc’s requirements.
“Qatar will continue along this path supporting European economies by supplying LNG,” HE Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah, Chairman of the Administrative Control and Transparency Authority and former Deputy Premier and Minister of Energy and Industry said in an address on ‘Energy Transition and the Role of Europe’ at the annual Brussels Forum this week.
Qatar’s largest LNG producer, Qatargas, signed its first five-year supply deal with Germany’s E.ON in 2013 covering the delivery of about 1.5mn tonnes of LNG annually via the Gate LNG Terminal in Rotterdam.
Tensions between Germany and Russia over Ukraine’s political future have propelled the issue of energy security to the very top of governments’ agendas and highlighted the need to maintain and advance the ongoing dialogue between energy consumers and producers.
The al-Attiyah Energy Awards, now in their second year and supported by Qatar Shell as gold partner and Qatar Petroleum as silver partner, were established to celebrate the legacy of Qatar’s former minister of energy and recognise distinguished individuals for their achievements over the full career cycle in the global energy industry.