Russia’s War Helps Qatar Boost Its Influence over Global Energy Flows

UK media is report­ing that Qatar’s influ­ence over inter­na­tion­al ener­gy flows is set to grow larg­er fol­low­ing Russia’s inva­sion of Ukraine and a series of deals to devel­op a new gas­field. Accord­ing to a Finan­cial Times report:

July 6, 2022   Qatar has built an out­sized role in glob­al com­mod­i­ty mar­kets since it first began export­ing liq­ue­fied nat­ur­al gas more than two decades ago.  Now, fol­low­ing Russia’s inva­sion of Ukraine and a series of deals to devel­op a new gas­field, the Gulf state’s influ­ence over inter­na­tion­al ener­gy flows is set to grow even larg­er.  QatarEn­er­gy, its state-owned gas pro­duc­er, has in recent weeks announced joint-ven­ture agree­ments with five of the world’s biggest inter­na­tion­al oil com­pa­nies to devel­op a vast $29bn project known as North Field East.  The project aims to increase Qatar’s annu­al export capac­i­ty from 77mn tonnes to 110mn tonnes by 2026, help­ing it to over­take Aus­tralia as the sec­ond-biggest pro­duc­er of the fuel behind the US.  The deals with the UK’s Shell, Exxon­Mo­bil and Cono­coPhilips of the US, France’s Total­En­er­gies and Italy’s Eni were years in the mak­ing and not a result of the rush for alter­na­tive ener­gy sup­plies fol­low­ing Russia’s war in Ukraine.  How­ev­er, the fact that big west­ern ener­gy com­pa­nies were so keen to join the project is a tes­ta­ment to Qatar’s grow­ing impor­tance as a gas super­pow­er. “Enter­ing Qatar is a major mile­stone for us,” Eni chief exec­u­tive Clau­dio Descalzi told the Finan­cial Times.

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Among oth­er things, Qatar has poured large sums of mon­ey into sup­port­ing Mus­lim Broth­er­hood projects in Europe. The coun­try also employs large num­bers of lob­by­ists to sup­port its goals and uses Al Jazeera as its defac­to media voice. In June, we report­ed on US offi­cials involved in an ongo­ing inves­ti­ga­tion into ille­gal lob­by­ing on behalf of Qatar. The Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report recent­ly report­ed that glob­al demand for nat­ur­al gas in the wake of Russia’s inva­sion of Ukraine had posi­tioned Qatar for a sig­nif­i­cant boost in its influ­ence capacity.