Energy Efficiency

Qatar, the world’s largest producer of liquefied natural gas, is diverting supplies destined for the U.S. and Europe to China because the Asian country pays more, Qatar’s oil minister said today.

A supply agreement this month between Qatar and China “is a diversion” from Europe and the U.S., “not new production”, Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah told reporters as he arrived in Rome for the International Energy Forum. “We are not in the charity business. Whoever will give me the best price, I will follow him.”

PetroChina Co. and China National Offshore Oil Corp., the nation’s biggest owners of liquefied natural gas terminals, signed accords with Qatar on April 10 to import the fuel as early as 2009. Qatar refused to supply Israel with the gas, known as LNG, during a meeting with Israel’s Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on April 15 because it doesn’t have sufficient extra supply, Attiyah said. “I met her and I told her we are not capable of selling gas to Israel. We are sold out,” he said.

Qatar, which holds the world’s third-largest gas reserves after Russia and Iran, is producing 31 million tons of LNG a year. Annual output will rise to 77 million tons a year by 2010.