When the UK ran out of gas, Qatar stepped in to save the day. In november, at the request of london prime minister boris johnson, the persian gulf emirate sent four giant liquefied natural gas tankers through the suez canal and the mediterranean sea to the north sea. Now Qatar is supposed to do the same for all of europe if russia turns off the tap because of the ukraine crisis.
the emir of qatar, sheikh tamim bin hamad al-thani, travels to washington this monday to discuss emergency aid for europe with u.s. president joe biden. So far, Qatar supplies around five percent of european gas imports. The EU gets about 40 percent of its imports from Russia . At least in theory, Qatar could sell more gas to the europeans than it does now. The emirate is the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas stored off the coast. Qatar sits on the largest gas reserves after russia and iran.
Large deposits of natural gas in Qatar
gas has made qatar rich: per capita income is 45.000 euro a year. Qatar uses the money for its foreign policy. the emirate supported its partner turkey during a financial crisis two years ago with investment pledges of 15 billion dollars. As the site of an important U.S. military base with about 10.000 soldiers qatar is an important partner of washington in the middle east. Currently, the emirate is trying to mediate in the nuclear dispute between tehran and washington. ahead of the first soccer world cup on arab soil in december, host qatar is working to polish its reputation.
helping europe out of a tight spot therefore fits into qatar’s foreign policy concept. u.s. secretary of state antony blinken spoke with his qatari counterpart mohammad bin abdulrahman al-thani last week. Washington fears moscow could drastically cut gas supplies to europe in response to western sanctions following a russian attack on ukraine.
Per day maximum 60.000 additional cubic meters for europe
However, despite its huge reserves, qatar cannot produce and liquefy more natural gas at will. The emirate is already producing at the upper limit of its capacity, the u.s. magazine forbes reported. If all potentials were exhausted, Qatar would be able to transport a maximum of 60 cubic meters of gas per day.create an additional 000 cubic meters to europe. This would be of little help to europeans, as the total consumption of the EU is more than one billion cubic meters per day.
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In the u.S., meanwhile, the government stresses that the nord stream 2 gas pipeline from russia to germany will not go into operation if russia invades ukraine. The pipeline also lacks approval. Despite the establishment of a german subsidiary, this is no longer expected in the first half of the year, said jochen homann, head of the federal network agency, to the FAZ.
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Deu at least has the advantage that nord stream 1 gets gas from russia directly via long-term contracts, without transit countries being able to interfere with it; but even there, neighboring poland is doing its best to obstruct the transmission in europe and then wants to be supplied itself via jamal back-pumping, because it does not want to extend the gas supply contract with russia. Comparable turkish stream over the now some southeast eur. countries to be supplied without the detour via ukraine and the eU regulation. And countries like Qatar, Norway and the USA will not be able to compensate the gas deficit for Europe if no gas comes through the UA, Yamal and NS 2. The shortage also causes prices to rise exorbitantly. Facts don’t count quality morals.