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Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres traveled to Doha, Qatar, on Monday to speak to a group of Foreign Ministry cadets. Peres is the first senior Israeli official to visit a Gulf Arab country since his visit to Qatar in 1996.
Peres' trip sheds light on Doha's bid to expand its influence among the six oil-rich Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states. Qatar typically has been out of step with the Arab consensus led by Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan, and has continually sought levers to compete with its Saudi rival. Though the tiny Gulf state is no match for Saudi Arabia's immense size and oil wealth, Qatar has a number of ways to edge itself out of Saudi Arabia's shadow.
Economically speaking, Saudi Arabia's approximately 261.0 billion barrels of proven oil reserves far outweighs Qatar's 15.2 billion barrels. But with peaking oil prices settling around the $55/barrel mark, Qatar's primary customers in Asia and the West have looked to Doha for attractive energy alternatives, namely liquefied natural gas (LNG). Qatar is already a world leader in LNG production -- it has the highest proven gas reserves in the Middle East, totaling 15.3 percent of global gas reserves. And though shipping is not exactly a cheap process, LNG is easily transportable and in high demand for countries in North America, Europe and Asia. Qatar also is a friendly investment climate, by Middle Eastern standards, and is known to be more transparent in business transactions than Saudi Arabia.
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