Qatar - Industry

Industry in Qatar is restricted by the small size of the population and the paucity of resources other than petroleum and natural gas. Qatar has nevertheless launched an ambitious industrialization plan aimed at diversifying the sources of national income and creating an economy that is not totally dependent on oil revenues. State enterprises include the Qatar Iron and Steel Co. (70% government-owned); the Qatar Fertilizer Co—QAFCO (70% government-owned, underwent its fourth expansion in 2002); the Qatar National Cement Co. (43% government-owned and no foreign investment); Qatar Petrochemical Company—QAPCO (80% government-owned, produces ethylene, polyethylene, and sulfur); Qatar Liquefied Gas Company—QatarGas (65% owned by Qatar Petroleum); Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas—Ras Gas (70% owned by Qatar Petroleum, began operations in 1999 and expanded in 2001, producing about 10 million tons per year); Qatar Chemicals Company—Q-Chem (51% owned by Qatar Petroleum, established 1997 with expansion into Q-Chem II in 2002); Qatar Fuel Additive Company—QAFAC (50% owned by Qatar Petroleum, commissioned in 1999 to produce 830,000 metric tons per year of methanol and 610,000 metric tons per year of methyl tertiary mutyl ether); Qatar Vinyl Company—QVC (25.% owned by Qatar Petroleum and 31.9% by QAPCO). It is estimated that industry accounted for almost 10.6% of GDP in 2000, up from 7.5% in 1997.