Gas output target to be reached by 2012 - Qatar oil min

Qatari Oil Minister Abdullah Al Attiyah said Qatar would reach its target LNG capacity of 77 million tonnes per year by 2012, a newspaper reported on Sunday.

Attiyah said Qatar's gas production currently stood at 31 million tonnes a year and would increase by 46 million tonnes over the course of the next three years, Al Watan reported.

The oil minister had recently said the world's largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter would ramp up production by 2010, while officials at state gas companies had said Qatar would not reach the 77-million tonne target until 2012.

The minister also said OPEC was becoming accustomed to the rise and fall in oil prices but that there were expectations conditions in the market would stabilise in 2010, Al Watan said. (Reuters)