Tuesday 18 September 2012

East Africa could be the next Qatar for gas

East Africa could be the "next Qatar" for onshore gas exploration and production.

Qatar is currently one of the largest exporters of liquefied natural gas followed by Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia.

But industry experts believe it could soon have a rival in East African nations such as Tanzania and Mozambique which have recently been shown to have significant gas resources.

Speaking at the Global Energy Conference in London yesterday, Robert McBean, Executive Chairman of Wentworth Resources said: "Could Africa be the next Qatar? Yes, I think so.”

He said East Africa is an “ideal” place to produce commodity chemicals from natural gas. He added the region has direct sea access to important Asian markets and a ready market for methanol as a blending component for gas.