DOHA, Oct 29, 2007 (AFP) - Qatar is considering supplying Kuwait with natural gas in liquid form as efforts to get the gas piped via Saudi Arabia still encounter "political complications", the economic advisor to the emir of Qatar said Monday.
"There are discussions at the moment around finding an alternative way to get gas to Kuwait...which could mean resorting to liquifying it rather than using pipelines," Ibrahim al-Ibrahim told reporters on the sidelines of an international gas conference in the Qatari capital, Doha.
The possibility of supplying LNG to Kuwait came about due to the "continuation of political complications related to the supply of gas," Ibrahim added, without elaborating.
Relations between Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been strained since Riyadh recalled its ambassador from Doha in 2002 when Al-Jazeera aired a debate in which participants strongly criticised the Saudi royal family, and the two neighbours often snipe at each other through their respective media.
OPEC member Qatar is a gas- and oil-rich Gulf emirate whose giant North Field has proven reserves of more than 900 trillion cubic feet (25 trillion cubic meters) of natural gas, the third largest in the world. It amounts to more than 15 percent of global proven gas reserves.
Dolphin Energy Ltd began in July pumping natural gas through a submarine pipeline from Qatar to the United Arab Emirates.
The pipeline, which is expected to carry 3.5 billion cubic feet (99 million cubic metres) of gas per day, is part of the massive gas project that involves producing and processing gas from Qatar's North Field and transporting it to the UAE.
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