OREANDA-NEWS.  December 08, 2014. Qatar has the world's third largest gas reserves of 871.5 trillion cubic feet (24.7 trillion cubic meters), representing about 13.3 percent of global proven oil reserves.

The country also produced 158.5 billion cubic meters (bcm) or 4.7 percent global gas production, making Qatar the world’s fourth largest gas producer in 2013 after Russia, the United States and Iran, according to the BP Statistical Review 2014.

More than 84 percent of Qatar's gas exports are in the form of liquefied natural gas (LNG), more than two thirds of which (71.4 percent) are shipped to Asia.

Helped by rising global demand amid tight supply, Qatar has seen its LNG exports surge from more than 18 million tons per annum (MTPA) in 2002 to 77.2 MTPA in 2013, representing more than 42 percent of global LNG trade last year.

Japan is Qatar's largest market, followed by India, South Korea and China. Qatar had never exported any LNG to China until 2009 after Qatar Gas and China National Oil Corporation's (CNOOC) signed a sales and purchase agreement in 2008 to supply China with 2 MTPA through a long-term contract of 25 years. Tellingly, within five years (2008-2013), Qatar LNG exports to China jumped significantly from zero to hit over 7 MTPA by end-2013. As a result, Qatar supplied over one-third (37.7 percent) of China’s total LNG demand (18.6 MTPA), subsequently becoming Beijing's largest supplier.

Interdependence at work
 
Within that context, economic relations between China and Qatar have shown remarkable growth in the last decade. Since 2004, the trade between the two countries has doubled more than 30 times and in the last five years (2008-2013) the volume of trade between them has risen by 345 percent to reach USD11.5 billion last year, according to IMF’s latest data .

For Qatar, China is currently the fourth largest market after Japan, South Korea, and India for its exports, accounting for nearly 6.5 percent of its global exports with more than 9 percent of Doha's LNG total exports. In terms of imports by Qatar, China ranks second after the United States and is the source of around 8.2 percent of Doha’s total imports.

Acknowledging China's importance as one of the largest and fastest growing economies in the world, Doha expressed its readiness to engage with Beijing and fulfil its energy requirements. In this regard, cooperation in LNG is a driving force in Qatari-Chinese ties.

Qatar is the world's largest LNG exporter, whereas China has become the world’s third largest LNG consumer after Japan, and South Korea. Last year, China imported nearly 38 percent of its LNG from Qatar, according to the International Gas Union (IGU).

Qatar hopes to build a long-term and strategic energy relationship with the coming economic super power. China’s rapid growing consumption of LNG is an emerging area which may play an important role in increasing the volume of bilateral trade between Beijing and Doha.

Most importantly, for Qatar the aim is to protect its share in the key Asian markets. Keenly aware of the growing challenge of new suppliers, Qatar hopes to strengthen its ties with China, one of the world's fastest growing LNG markets. This may have been in the mind of the Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani when he visited Beijing at the beginning of this month that almost went unnoticed amid the chaos gripping the Middle East.