Implementing best practices in Qatar oil & Gas Organization

Qatar is the world’s leading exporter of oil and gas with massive supply of the commodities around the world.

With changes in the modern world, the production of oil and gas needs to under go various. The various changes call for maintenance of best practices and improvement in various aspects of production. Major Key areas of concern include man power development, strategic planning, management decision making, managing business environment, and business innovation. Another major key area of concern is various strategic measures necessary to overcome political obstacles, monetary barriers, and organizational restrictions. The exploitation of oil and gas in Qatar been faced with a number of challenges which requires various measures to ensure that there is improvement in the use of the natural commodities. Considering the domination of the oil fields by Qatar in the world, a number of states were very concerned with the war in Iraq.

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This was more of a considerable issue considering the six states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). On one hand, the United State military operation planned to overthrow a regime which had occupied its fellow states threatening the regions stability. There was also a major concern in relation to existence of a difficult situation whereby balancing the needs between GCC states and Washington was a major challenge. Considering these factors, Qatar finds itself in a peculiar position whereby on one side it experiences powerhouse from Saudi Arabia and chaotic Iraq across Persian Gulf. As an independent nation, Qatar has tried to carve itself out through consideration of an independent foreign policy.

This thus means that the existence of oil and natural gas is a question of considering the country’s foreign policy initiatives. Through proper leadership plans and existence of strong political structures, Qatar has resulted into one of the world’s exporter of oil and natural gas. Under the leadership of Sheik Hammed, Qatar several changes have been implemented which have resulted to political liberalization. Although there have been changes in policy, Qatar has suffered like any other oil-dependent Persian Gulf states. The major concern has been the need to diversify economic development to extent beyond the level of crude oil exports with the view of scaling generous state subsidies for users.

The sharp rise in natural gas exports is a major contributing g factor to Qatar’s economic growth. I the case of management decision various parties have been involved in coming up with policies relating to economic diversification. This has led to a surge in investments especially the ones relating to export of liquidified natural gas and oil products. Considering this factor of proper decision making process by the management, the government expects to earn more per barrel of crude oil. It is a measure related to a number of benefits such as creation of job opportunities through private sector and increased export of refined products.

This is an improvement in matters of economic development considering the prior periods where the government was the only source of employment. Through various revolutions in managerial policies, Qatar has begun to repay its external debt. The debt was accumulated with a view of improving infrastructure investment in oil and gas related projects which led to an increase in Qatar’s oil production capacity. Other important related developments which resulted from improvement in infrastructure investment were massive construction of facilities to support exportation of liquidified natural gas. In addition, petrochemical plants were established through a strong oil infrastructure investment.

Through strategic planning, man power development, and management of business environment, Qatar has proven oil reserves ranging to a figure of 15.2 billion barrels.The largest oil field in Qatar is Dukhan which is located on the west coast of peninsula. After the 1995 coup, Qatar initiated several policies with the intention of increasing oil production among other major developments. Other key developments through initiation of new policies were the fact of locating additional oil reserves and investment in oil recovery systems.

These measures aimed at exploiting new oil reserves before the existing ones became expensive to recover. To accomplish this objective, the government has engaged in various strategic plans through improved terms of exploration, production sharing agreements, and production contracts. The improved terms aimed at attracting foreign investors to improve oil producing fields with a view of exploring new oil deposits. Two major improvements in this case relates to offshore and onshore developments. The onshore development is a deal which involved Qatar and Chevron whereby an onshore oil exploration agreement was signed and is still effective to date. It is a five year exploration agreement covering an area known as Block -2 whicch covers Qatari peninsula with exception of Dukhan field.

On the other hand, the offshore development is a new oil field in Qatar operated by various parties with inclusion of British Gas. Plans are underway to improve the life of the oil fields through renovation. Through various developmental policies there has been an improvement in the manner of exploiting oil fields. This is majorly achieved through field development, gas and water injection systems, reservoir repairs, and intensive exploration. The measures aim at keeping operating costs low hence attracting foreign companies to develop more oil fields. A recent upgrade of its Umm Said refinery has led to expansion in the capacity of oil production.

For instance, in 1997, Qatar Petroleum signed a memorandum of understanding with foreign participants which led to existence of a condensate refinery. This was a measure towards improvement in implementing best practices in Qatar oil and Gas Organization.In the case of natural gas, Qatar has quite a number of reserves and it is ranked third in size after Russia and Iran. Most of the natural gas in Qatar is located in offshore North Field one of the largest non-associated gas fields in the world. The existence of natural gas fields has been promoted through engagement of various parties in sharing agreement.

For instance through the Enhanced Gas Utilization project, there has been a development in upstream infrastructure to9 support domestic use especially for petrochemical projects and export natural gas to Persian Gulf states. Through business innovations, certain projects have been developed to ensure that there is trading of natural gas in various global markets. This is a measure towards improvement in the various policies necessary to promote production of natural gas. The use of natural gas in fields such as power generation and in industries has also influenced the desire for Qatar to implement best policies in natural gas and oil organization. Qatar has also shown interest in potential development of Gas-to-Liquids projects which is associated with vast reserves of natural gas.

Engagement of world’s potential investors in oil and natural gas such as Shell is also an important consideration in implementation of best practices in relation to organization of oil and gas. This is clearly evident through consideration of various factors a major concern being the interest of the two entities in studying potential GTL projects especially in Qatar.

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