On the sidelines of a conference in Berlin, Qatar’s Emir revealed plans to invest 10 billion EUR (US$11.6 billion) over the next five years, to bolster ties with Germany, Europe’s largest economy and biggest energy consumer. The funding includes the possible creation of a LNG terminal.
The head of the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) said the funds would facilitate additional investments in the German financial sector, as well as in promising developments in information technology, artificial intelligence and healthcare, Reuters reported.
This comes in addition to 25 billion EUR Qatar has already invested in key German companies such as Volkswagen AG, Siemens AG, Deutsche Bank and others.
Namely, Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani said the overall volume of German-Qatari trade had dipped slightly in 2017, after doubling to around 2.8 billion EUR, but he expected further growth in the years to come.
On her turn, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Qatar’s LNG supplies would help diversify supply sources in the country, as it is already linked with LNG terminals in the Netherlands, Belgium and Poland, but her government is working toward a potential local LNG terminal.
Qatar’s energy minister Mohammed al-Sada threw his support behind the possible cooperation of Qatar Petroleum, the world’s top supplier of LNG, in the project.
The German LNG Terminal consortium comprising Dutch gas network operator Gasunie, German tank storage provider Oiltanking and Dutch oil and chemical storage company Vopak are developing a plan with a funding decision due by the end of 2019.
