“Of course, I won’t go to the same field in Iran without telling Qatar,” Pouyanne told Reuters. Besides Iran and Qatar, Total also has large projects in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, highlighting the complexity of investing in the Middle East. Qatar has built its gas export power over the past decade with support from global oil majors including ExxonMobil, Total and Royal Dutch Shell. The projects have generated billions of dollars for Qatar and its Western partners and the planned expansion to its gas capacity would make Qatar even more dominant in the gas market, accounting for a third of current global LNG output. Exxon, Shell and Total declined to comment on plans to participate in Qatar’s tenders to expand gas capacity, which are yet to be announced and will take several years to complete.

Source: Egypt Independent July 10, 2017 06:56 UTC