In keeping with its geographical position directly between Saudi Arabia on its west and Iran on its east, Qatar’s geopolitical positioning is a tricky thing to manage. In recent months, it appeared that Qatar was shifting decisively towards the Iran-China power axis but in recent days this has looked less certain. The outcomes of the new bidding for Qatar’s flagship North Dome expansion and of new liquefied natural gas supply deals (LNG) later this year will provide the surest signals yet as to which group Qatar sees its future. There are clues, though, analysed below, as to how Qatar thinks it can best secure the number one LNG exporter position, having lost the spot in January to Australia, and to achieve its output target of 126 million tons per year (mtpy) by 2027, up from current capacity of around 77 mtpy. The most recent development is the interest shown […]