Ini cerita geopolitik beneran.Diambil dari koran the Guardian.
Menakjubkan, Bahrain yang bertetangga dengan North Field (the biggest gas field
in the world, kebetulan tempat saya jadi buruh cangkul) kudu cari gas sampai ke
Russia segala. Sementara negara teluk tetangga lain beli gas asal Qatar di
Eropa.....
- - - - -Qatari gasReuters, Wednesday March 7 2012* Gas demand in Gulf rising
rapidly* But politics hinder regional pipeline project* Countries forced to
ship in LNG from across world* Qatar moratorium on additional exports may last
years* Governments losing money on domestic gas subsidies
By Daniel FinerenDUBAI, March 7 (Reuters) - Countries neighbouring the world's
biggest natural gas field in the Gulf face years of importing fuel by ship from
distant suppliers, after plans to share the gas through a pipeline were stifled
by political rivalries and haggling over price.Qatar has become one of world's
richest countries by selling gas from the vast North Field under its waters to
Europe, Asia and the Americas -- bankrolling its preparations to host the 2022
World Cup soccer tournament with some of the profits.Long before Qatar spent
billions of dollars on building the world's biggest liquefied natural gas (LNG)
plants to export the fuel, it began discussing with the other five countries in
the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) -- Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia and
the United Arab Emirates -- the idea of creating a gas sharing grid to drive
economic growth in the region.But over a decade later, only one under-used leg
of the grid has been
built. And Qatar has now committed itself to selling nearly all its gas to
countries outside the Gulf, until it lifts a self-imposed moratorium on further
export projects."The perception across the Gulf in the early part of the last
decade was that there was not a gas shortage, and by the time a number of
countries realised that they would be short, Qatar had called the moratorium
and committed its gas," a senior source in Qatar's gas industry told
Reuters."Until the middle of the last decade, people were still expecting to
get gas at very low prices," said the source, who declined to be identified
because of the political sensitivity of the issue."People realise now that if
they are going to have gas traded across (the Gulf), then it's not going to be
at low prices...For Qatar it's not really a price issue -- until the moratorium
is lifted, there isn't any gas."DEMANDFor decades, Gulf countries saw natural
gas largely as a byproduct of their oil
production, with much of it burned off or sold cheaply to local industries.
Gas became eagerly sought-after in the region over the past decade as a
population boom drove up demand for electricity and industries such as
petrochemicals and aluminium smelting developed.Saudi Arabia continues to burn
large quantities of its oil reserves in power plants, but its less well-endowed
neighbours want to burn more gas so they can keep oil for export. As a result,
the International Energy Agency expects the Middle East to account for a fifth
of the growth in global gas demand between 2011 and 2016.Sharing Qatar's huge
gas reserves could have provided the GCC with a convenient solution to its
supply problems and helped the integration of its economies, one of the
organisation's stated goals. Instead, politics intervened.According to
diplomatic cables from the U.S. embassy in Manama on Feb. 16, 2005, released by
Wikileaks, Bahrain's King Hamad complained to the U.S.
ambassador that Saudi Arabia was blocking a proposed pipeline from Qatar to
Kuwait via Bahrain.Manama appealed to Washington to pressure Riyadh to let
Kuwait and Bahrain link to the North Field. But the project was dead in the
water, leaving Kuwait no choice but to find global suppliers to ship LNG into
the Gulf from as far afield as Australia.Meanwhile, Bahrain is in talks for
Russian gas giant Gazprom to supply the tiny island, which is located just 100
km (60 miles) from the North Field, with LNG from around the world.In one of
great oddities of world trade, cargoes of Qatari LNG have even been delivered
to northwest Europe, then reloaded and shipped back to the Gulf in a round trip
of over 26,000 km, because prices on offer in the Gulf were higher at the
time."Politics is a big part of it," said Robin Mills of Dubai-based Manaar
Energy Consulting.Analysts believe Saudi Arabia, which had already decided to
look for its own gas under the sand dunes of
its Empty Quarter rather than rely on Qatar, probably blocked the GCC pipeline
from running alongside its east coast because it would have given Doha too much
power over GCC countries."They don't want Qatar to increase its regional
economic and political influence, possibly to the detriment of their own," said
Jonathan Stern, director of gas research at the Oxford Institute of Energy
Studies."The reason they don't import Qatari gas themselves -- a highly
sensible idea for them -- is partly because they don't want to give the Qataris
any power over them."According to U.S. embassy cables released by Wikileaks,
Bahrain and Kuwait at one stage began supply negotiations with Iran in the hope
that Saudi Arabia would see the proposed Qatari pipeline as less threatening
than a deal with Tehran, which is Riyadh's biggest rival in OPEC.That tactic
failed, however. Iran's own appetite for its reserves, including a share in the
North Field which Tehran calls the
South Pars, and international sanctions against Iran have slowed production
growth, limiting the country's exports.Bahrain's energy minister Abdul Hussein
bin Ali Mirza told Reuters that talks with Iran fell apart because of "recent
events" in the region. Bahrain accuses Iran of fomenting a February 2011
uprising against the government.The only gas pipeline that Iran has laid, to
the UAE, has remained closed for years since it started leaking gas at the
bottom of the Gulf during initial tests.In the absence of a pipeline, Gulf
countries could still import Qatari LNG by ship. But with the exception of the
UAE, they have generally failed to agree on terms, generating some ill feeling
in the region."Qatar has continued to rebuff Bahraini requests to open
negotiations on long-term contracts for North Field gas, which irks King Hamad
-- first, because Bahrain needs additional energy supply, and second, because
it is taken as a personal slight," read a
January 2010 U.S. embassy cable sent after another meeting with the
king."Qatar is seen as turning its back on a GCC partner in need while at the
same time concluding new gas supply contracts with a host of other
non-Arabs."DOLPHINOn the east side of the Qatari peninsula, and beyond Saudi
Arabia's territorial waters, the Dolphin Energy pipeline -- the only
cross-border gas line that the GCC countries have been cooperative enough to
build -- carries some 2 billion cubic feet a day of gas from Qatar to the
UAE.Half of the gas is burned within metres of its arrival in the UAE, in order
to boil brine into drinking water, power the world's biggest aluminium plant
and generate electricity to keep Abu Dhabi residents cool during the searing
summers.The remainder of the gas is pumped to other plants in the desert. Some
even makes it as far as Oman, an LNG exporter which is struggling to cope with
soaring domestic demand for the fuel.But the Dolphin line is
still only used at two-thirds of its capacity because buyers in the UAE would
not agree to Doha's price demands. It is now too late for further price
negotiations because of Qatar's moratorium on further export projects."The
pipeline still has extra capacity, but we have no plans to increase" supply,
Dolphin Energy's Qatar General Manager Adel Ahmed Albuainain told Reuters. "As
soon as we have more gas available, we will be more than happy to do
that...There are lots of demands in the UAE...but we can only provide what we
have."Qatar has frozen further development of the North Field for export to
conserve it for future generations, out of concern that over-exploitation could
cause long-term damage. The moratorium is not expected by industry experts to
be lifted until 2014-15 at the earliest
