LOC22:19
19:19 GMT
DOHA, Sept 21 (KUNA) -- Qatar Petroleum will provide Taiwan's state-owned
CBC Corporation with three million tons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) per
year, according to a deal signed on Sunday by the two sides.
Announcing the deal in a press conference here, Qatari Deputy Prime
Minister and Minister of Energy and Industry Abdallah Bin Hamad Al-Atiyah said
his country attributed great importance to the Taiwanese market.
Taiwan is one of the key destinations of Qatar's fuel exports in Asia,
Al-Atiyah underscored.
Qatar is the main provider of LNG to Asian economies including China,
India, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan, he pointed out.
Qatar's gas output is expected to top 77 million tons a year, he said,
noting that all the quantities have already been sold and needed no marketing.
Regarding the recent OPEC meeting in Vienna, Austria, Al-Atiyah said the
meeting did not curtail oil production of the global cartel; it rather
reaffirmed commitment to the production ceiling decided n September, 2007.
The meeting urged the OPEC members to abide by their quotas after they
exceeded the ceiling by 500,000 barrels of crude oil a day, he explained.
Al-Atiyah attributed the recent slump of oil prices to the turbulence of
the global economy and the U.S. financial crisis.
The instability of the global economic growth and the U.S. economy
triggered collapse of major financial firms and great losses to the world's
stock markets, he noted.
Qatar Petroleum aims to maximize its contribution to the national wealth of
the State of Qatar, through the safe, efficient and environmentally acceptable
exploitation of Qatar's hydrocarbon reserves and through related activities.
(end)
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