BP eyes return to Qatar after 15-year hiatus

UK energy giant BP is eyeing a return to Qatar's upstream gas sector after a 15-year hiatus, a senior company executive said on Monday.

"Qatar is one of the biggest gas resource holders on the planet, who wouldn't be interested," BP's President of Middle East and South Asia Exploration and Production Unit Steve Peacock told Reuters on the sidelines of a gas conference.

BP pulled out of a project to build Qatar's first liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in 1992, stating it saw no financial benefits to staying in the project. Since then, Qatar has gone on to become the world's largest producer of LNG, which is gas chilled to liquid for export on specially designed ships.

BP would be interested in looking at offshore exploration areas that were currently open or in taking part in projects to produce more difficult gas reserves in Qatar, Peacock said.

It would also look at taking a role in any future LNG projects, he added.

Qatar was likely to look at fields other than its giant North Field to satisfy rapidly-growing domestic demand, Peacock said. Those could provide an opportunity for BP.

Qatar, the holder of the world's third-largest gas reserves, has put new projects on hold from its North Field while it studies the performance of the reservoir as it undergoes rapid development. The North Field is the largest pure gas reservoir in the world.

The moratorium on new projects has limited potential opportunities for investment in the country's upstream gas sector. - Reuters

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