Qatar is considering investing in Canadian and US shale upstream gas concessions. The potential move to the continent is similar to the strategy of state-owned petrochemical firm Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC), which is also eyeing North America but for shale gas-fed downstream projects as part of its next expansion phase (MEES, 14 December 2012). State-owned Qatar Petroleum (QP) invests overseas through its subsidiary Qatar Petroleum International (QPI).
QPI is considering going into shale gas concessions with international oil companies that have investments in Qatari projects, Ahmad al-Ahmad, QPI upstream operations director said on 5 March at a conference in Doha. A long-time goal of QPI has been to cement its ties with these firms by investing with them overseas, such as farming into their upstream concessions in other countries (MEES, 25 January). ExxonMobil, Total, and Shell all have stakes in Qatari LNG projects, and have shale gas concessions in North America. (CONTINUED - 294 WORDS)
