News: Qatar has decided to leave OPEC in January next year

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Qatar’s Minister of State for Energy, Saad Al-Kabib, announced on the 3rd that Qatar would withdraw from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) starting from January 1, 2019, and Qatar notified OPEC of this decision on the same day. 　　Saad said at a press conference held on the same day that Qatar’s oil production is low, and its withdrawal from OPEC would not affect global oil market prices. 　　He said that Qatar is striving to become a reliable global energy supplier; it must maintain the importance of its natural gas industry and also reevaluate its role in the global energy supply in order to serve Qatar’s long-term strategic goals. 　　He said that Qatar’s key industry is the natural gas sector, and Qatar will continue to expand its natural gas production in order to maintain its status as a major global producer of natural gas and a leading exporter of clean energy. 　　Qatar ranks third in the world in terms of natural gas reserves, and it leads the world in liquefied natural gas exports. Some analysts point out that due to weak international market prices, Qatar’s revenue from natural gas exports has declined significantly, increasing economic pressures. One of Qatar’s key measures to boost its economy is to strengthen the natural gas industry.