Qatargas CEO Visits Japan to Offer Support

Qatargas’ Chief Executive Officer, Khalid Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, this week, led a Qatargas delegation to Japan to meet with senior officials from its customers and buyers in the energy industry as well as key media to express his and the company’s compassion for the Japanese people at this tragic time and to review what Qatargas could do to assist its customers and buyers, to in turn help the Japanese people.

The visit was well accepted and appreciated by Qatargas’ customers and buyers where the Qatargas CEO passed the message that Qatargas, the world’s largest LNG producer, under the guidance of His Excellency Dr. Mohammed Al Sada, Minister of Energy and Industry for the State of Qatar, and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Qatargas, continues to pledge its support and commitment to the country of Japan and its people.

Importantly to ensure this message was communicated widely to the Japanese people, the Qatargas CEO agreed and conducted an interview with the Nikkei newspaper where he added, “Qatargas stands ready to provide all the support to its long-term partners and foundation customers in Japan to meet any increased requirements for LNG at this time. Japan is our foundation customer, who has strongly supported the economic development of Qatar. It is now our turn, to continue to provide all the support we can.”

He went onto to state, “I am in Japan this week to show our support to our customers and to find out first hand what is needed. However, I can confirm that Qatargas has already increased supplies of LNG to a number of our long-term buyers in Japan. I believe Qatargas is uniquely placed to help Japan during its moment of need and the speed at which Qatargas has been able to secure additional supplies of LNG for Japan is a testament to our flexibility, commitment to our long-term customers and the good working relationship we have with them.”

He added that, “We are also sufficiently flexible in our supply to be able to offer long-term customers like Japan additional LNG cargoes in event of supply interruptions from other sources of energy /gas. In terms of the longer term implications of the recent sad developments, I feel, it is still too early to assess their full implications. As the foundation customer for Qatar and Qatargas, Japan remains the significant important customer and we will continue to do whatever we can to support Japan and its people at this time.”

Qatar is now the world’s leading LNG producer and one of the world’s leading exporters of gas. Qatargas has an excellent track record of delivering LNG to markets such as Japan in a secure, reliable way. Part of the success of Qatargas over recent years can be attributed to the close and long term relationships it has built up with its contractors and suppliers including many based in Japan.

He concluded that, “Our future competitiveness will depend on sustaining these relationships. I am sure Japanese based companies will be a part of that process. I will though reiterate Japan, our Japanese Buyers, customers and contractors remain very important for Qatargas. Now back in Doha we have work to do, to ensure we deliver on this promise – the pledge of support.”

[mappress]

Source: Qatargas, April 9, 2011;