Confident: Abdullah Attiyah
'World still thirsts for gas'
Qatar sees high demand for gas despite a global downturn, with some Asian and European countries including India or China requesting new supplies, the Gulf Arab state's Oil Minister Abdullah Attiyah said.
"The world is facing a shortage of gas," Attiyah told Reuters on the sidelines of an energy conference in Kuwait.
"Still until today I receive a lot of requests from India, China, from Germany, from many parts of the world...Demand for gas is very high," he said, adding that no existing customer had asked to reduce supplies.
He said Qatar wanted to supply 1 million tonnes of gas to Thailand from 2011.
Exports to India would rise by an extra 2.5 million tonnes to 7.5 million tonnes this year, Attiyah said, adding that Qatar and India were in talks to supply a planned terminal in the southern Indian city of Kochin with an extra 1 million tonnes.
He declined to give more specific details.
China, which gets 5 million tonnes annually, had also demanded new supplies, he added.
Attiyah also said Qatar hoped to conclude talks over gas supplies to its Gulf Arab neighbour Kuwait - which needs to meet rising demand for air conditioning units during the summer - at "any time", without giving more details.