Qatar Petroleum cuts spending by 30%

Speaking during a webcast organised by the U.S-Qatar Business Council, Saad al-Kaabi, the company's Chief Executive, said however that plans to sharply expand Qatar Petroleum’s LNG capacity by the middle of the decade remain on track.

“We are going through budget revisions... In June we will be somewhere in the range of 30% reduction in expenditure, CAPEX and OPEX,” Kaabi said.

Kaabi said he expected oil demand to recover to pre-crisis levels only within a year or two, adding that natural gas prices have suffered less due to continued demand for electricity.

Qatar Petroleum, the world’s largest LNG producer, will however not cut its gas exports due to the weaker demand, he added.

The company wants to lift its LNG output to around 110 million tpy by 2024 from today’s 77 million tpy in the first phase of its expansion.

Those plans remain on course, Kaabi said, despite delaying the awarding of commercial tenders for the expansion project from April to the end of the year.

“We’re full steam ahead, we’re going to expand,” Kaabi said.

Once the project’s capital costs are understood in the coming months, he expects a number of major international companies, including ExxonMobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips to take part in the tendering process, he added.

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