Most of the engineering graduates came back to work in Qatar’s energy sector. Today we are also very proud that we have a lot of Qatari women working in the industry as engineers.
The scholarship programme continues until now and we are still developing strategic links with educational institutions within Qatar to increase the number of home grown engineers and other specialists. This is not a quick fix, but it will build up the national knowledge base going into the future.
We have expanded the industry very quickly and today we have almost 77 subsidiaries, all of which are trying to employ more Qataris. We have several strategies for ensuring that we have the human resources that we need to keep pace with our ambitious expansion programmes. Now even our foreign partners are hiring Qataris. They also give us a lot of technical support and we use their training centers to train our nationals. That is a big change from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s when the IOCs resisted the idea of employing nationals.
How would you characterize your approach to relations with International Oil Companies?
I am a big believer in not just signing contracts, but in making sure that we maintain a good relationship, friendship, understanding and trust directly with our partners and customers.
That is why I introduced to QP the transparent policy, including the ethics law and the conflict of interest law. I asked all our employees, including myself to sign them. We told all our partners and customers that they have to sign a legal document stating that no middlemen or intermediaries will be involved in our relationship, that they work directly with QP with no agents or promoters.
We created a direct business relationship with them without agents or middlemen, the people who corrupt the energy sectors in many parts of the world.
When I became minister I told the International Oil Companies that we should stop being at war. “If you don’t beat me and I cannot beat you, join me”, is what I told them. In the 1970s and 1980s there was regular conflict between the IOCs and the National Oil Companies. We had the reserves and the opportunities, while the IOCs had the finance and the technology. I am very proud that we came together.
We gave them production-sharing agreements. In the old days they were called concessions, but we refused to call them concessions, we changed the model to production sharing agreements. We said that we would not go back to imperialist days. Many countries came to see us for our production sharing agreements and they started using this model.
What is Your Outlook for Oil Prices?
I always believed, based on my knowledge of the market that prices in the hydrocarbon industry go in a cycle they never stay high or low for a long time. In my years in the industry, I saw cycles lasting an average of 15 years. I saw how the oil price works, up in the first shock of 1973, then down in 1985. Then it also took 15 years to recover in 2000.
For the last 10 years the oil price was high because India and China entered the market, as big industrial nations, with very high demand. And they bought huge volumes. But because prices go in a cycle, I don’t see the oil price rising to 100 dollars a barrel again anytime soon. We should forget that level of prices for the time being.
Higher oil prices are not always good for producers or consumers. Producers in my experience need a reasonable price for their product and a healthy customer. The debate on price indexation will continue because consumers never had a clear stand on it. When the price is low they want oil indexation, but when the price goes up they change their minds.
Current market conditions have highlighted the importance of dialogue even further. That is why there should always be dialogue and we must learn from past experiences.
How important is Producer-Consumer dialogue at a time when the energy sector is facing so many challenges?
Dialogue is very important, producers need to know what the demand forecasts are going to be so they can make the right investments and consumers need to know if there is adequate supply. This balance is hard to achieve without dialogue. It is always a challenge to work out how producers and consumers can create a formula for stabilization and avoiding shocks in the oil and gas markets. How can they work together and how can they both benefit?
