Abdulla bin Hamad al-Attiyah, Qatar’s former oil minister affectionately known as the “godfather of LNG,” died on 27 May from complications arising from a double lung transplant he had undergone more than a decade ago. A former deputy prime minister, Mr Attiyah had stepped back from the political limelight in 2015 after more than 20 years of service (MEES, 20 March 2015), during which he oversaw the emirate’s transformation into one of the wealthiest nations on earth.
When he assumed the role of minister in 1992, Qatar’s economy was in crisis. Oil prices had fallen below $10/barrel, and the country’s production had collapsed from 600,000 b/d to around 350,000 b/d. An Opec member at the time, Qatar had yet to exploit the vast gas resources lying offshore the tiny peninsula. It was then that Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa al-Thani, Qatar’s then ruler, asked Mr Attiyah to develop the country’s energy sector by whatever means he saw fit — but without state support, because there were no funds available.
Mr Attiyah often spoke of the difficulties he faced convincing international oil companies to invest in Qatari gas at a time when natural gas was still regarded as a poor relation to crude oil. Eventually the majors came: ExxonMobil, Shell and Total were the first to heed his call. BP was not among them. The UK major was the first multinational Mr Attiyah approached, but it turned down the opportunity. It was never forgiven. To this day, BP remains the only major international energy company without a stake in the existing Ras Laffan complex or its two expansion projects.
Development moved quickly, and Mr Attiyah was given a free hand by the then-emir he called a friend. The first LNG train was commissioned at Ras Laffan in 1997, the beginning of what grew into a giant industrial complex that became the economic backbone of the tiny peninsula.
“We achieved a miracle,” he said of that period. By December 2010, Qatar had gone from zero to 77mn t/y of LNG production, becoming the world’s largest exporter with the help of the multinationals.
Qatar’s Gulf Arab neighbors — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE — had prioritized oil over gas, and much of the gas they produced was associated with crude, leaving them exposed to Opec quota fluctuations. The UAE, though an LNG exporter itself, was growing rapidly and turned to Qatar for additional supplies to meet soaring electricity demand. The result was Dolphin Energy, the first cross-border gas project in the Gulf, supplying pipeline gas from Qatar’s North Field to Abu Dhabi, Dubai and onward to Oman.
Qatar’s early move in LNG paid off. It overtook Indonesia and Malaysia in 2006 to become the world’s largest LNG producer, and opened up an unchallenged lead from 2007 onwards. The rise of Australia and more recently the USA saw Qatar overtaken in 2020, but it has remained firmly in the top three ever since (see chart).
Qatar Became The World’s Largest LNG Exporter In 2006 And Held Onto The Position Until 2020 (mn t/y)
When Iranian projectiles struck Ras Laffan in March 2026 during the US-Israeli war on Iran, knocking out two LNG trains and forcing a declaration of force majeure on all exports, Mr Attiyah was already in poor health and made no public comment. But it would no doubt have been a painful moment for a figure so intimately associated with the industry he had built.
Beyond energy, Mr Attiyah was a keen radio ham and an avid reader of history with a deep interest in regional politics. He could hold forth on almost any subject — from politics to religion to sport — yet was always careful not to cause offence. It was his honesty above all, and his absolute intolerance of corruption, that earned him the lasting respect of the industry.
For his services to Qatar and to the global energy sector, Mr Attiyah was recognized with honors from many of the governments and institutions he dealt with over his decades in office. In 2008, Emperor Akihito awarded him Japan’s Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun in recognition of his role in strengthening bilateral energy ties.
