Qatar, Japan to expand volume of joint investment

Qatari Minister of Energy Abdullah Bin Hamad al-Ateyah on Tuesday urged the Japanese government to expand its investments in Qatar. In the meantime, Japan's investments in Qatar are limited to developing operations of oil and gas and the sale of those products.

At a symposium held in Tokyo, the Qatari minister said that Qatar has great possibilities in areas of investment with US and European companies, especially in marketing, oil refining, petrochemicals and fertilizers, "Yet, Qatar has no direct experience with the Japanese companies exccept in the fields of oil and gas." He called for Japan's participation in the various industrial projects in Japan.

Qatar is committed to exporting 10.8 million tonnes of liquid natural gas to Japan and North Korea as of the beginning of 1999.

In 1988 some 148.8 million barrels of crude oil were shipped to Japan. This figure represents 9.33% of Japan's imports of crude oil, thereby Qatar occupies the fourth position among crude oil exporters to Japan in 1998.