Attiyah heads panel formed to write Qatar’s history in oil and gas sector

QNA/DohaHE the Chairman of the Administrative Control and Transparency Authority HE Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah has announced that he will chair the committee formed by the Board of Trustees of Qatar Museums Authority (QMA) to write the history of Qatar in the oil and gas industry. HE al-Attiyah’s announcement came during a speech he gave at a dinner party on Wednesday hosted by Royal Dutch Shell to bid farewell to retiring Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Peter Voser and to welcome the new CEO Van Bjordn, in the presence of HE the Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of Qatar Museums Authority Sheikha  Al-Mayassa bint Hamad al-Thani, HE the Minister of Energy and Industry Dr Mohamed bin Saleh al-Sada  and a number of senior employees of Qatar Petroleum and Shell. Al-Attiyah said Sheikha Al-Mayassa asked him to participate in the Board of Trustees of Qatar Museums Authority and to chair a special committee formed to write Qatar’s history in the oil and gas sector. He expressed his pride to be involved in this project, which will cover the Qatari society’s history shortly before the discovery of oil and gas, the phase that followed oil and gas discovery and the changes in the community as a result of this discovery. He added that Shell returned to work in Qatar several years ago, explaining that it asked in 2003 to return to work in the State after halting its activities in  the late 80s of the last century. Al-Attiyah said during his tenure as Minister of Energy and Industry he assured the officials in Shell about the need to build more confidence to restart working together again. “After a lapse of almost 10 years we have seen how Shell has become the biggest investor in Qatar”, al-Attiyah said. He added: “We started with Qatargas 4 project, then Shell later asked for the development of co-operation by starting the gas to liquids project  and at the time Qatar was one of the first countries in the world to own a commercial project for transforming gas into liquids, namely ORYX GTL plant, which produces about 34,000 barrels per day, making it the biggest at that time.”