OPEC Bulletin January 2009OPEC Bulletin February 2009OPEC ...

and bringing in the top international oil companies to
help develop Qatar’s abundant natural resources.
But it was not just the crude oil side of the petroleum
industry where he succeeded. For more than a decade Al
Attiyah has built up Qatar’s natural gas industry and production
capability, and, in the process, helped it become
the largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
Today, 15 years since shipping its first tanker of LNG,
Qatar has attained its long-term goal of being capable of
exporting 77 million tonnes of the super-cooled gas annually
to selected markets around the globe.
Al Attiyah’s years of experience and success in helping
to make Qatar one of the richest and most successful
countries in the world has not gone unnoticed in oil
industry circles.
In 2007, the London-based British Petroleum
Intelligence Bulletin chose him as their ‘Man of the Year’
for his untiring work in the field of the development of
hydrocarbons.
He has also been heavily involved in the relatively
new initiative, the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF),
set up in 2001 to represent and promote the interests of
global gas producers, including drawing up a framework
for international gas markets.
In June 2009, at the 8th GECF Ministerial Meeting
in Doha, Al Attiyah was elected as Chairman of the
organization.
And, at the end of the Forum’s 11th Ministerial Meeting,
also held in the Qatari capital in early December 2010, he
announced that Qatar will host the first ever Summit of
Heads of State and Government of the GECF in November
this year, which will be another landmark event for him.
As for his new responsibilities in Qatar, sources say
that in his new position as Head of the Emir’s Court, Al
Attiyah will assume no less important a job as his energy
portfolio activities, but more of a behind-the-scenes role
in coordinating all official and unofficial contacts, relationships
and work of the Emir and the central parts of
the royal court.
In his spare time, Al Attiyah, a committed family man
with six children, lists his interests as reading, fishing and
radio communication.
Whether stepping down from his OPEC duties will give
him more time for his leisure-time pursuits, remains to
be seen. One does imagine, however, that even though
his official days at OPEC Conferences are over, he will
not be very far away from the Organization’s affairs — or
thoughts.
Al Attiyah with Sheikh Ahmad Fahad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, Kuwait’s Minister of Energy.
... pictured with Dr Chakib Khelil (r), Algeria’s Minister of Energy and Mines.
2006
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