Qatar eases off on gas-fired boom

* username: rupertbu

Doha sees GDP growing 16 per cent this year as its industrial expansion continues, but the country’s prospects have been hit by weak prices for its exports of LNG as the world experiences a surge in supply, and a domestic property slump.

Qatar is the fastest growing economy in the Gulf and a visit to this cluster of gas-fuelled plants on the country’s north-east coast shows why.

The shore is lined with huge complexes as long as 1km, made of twisting steel pipes and tanks belching flames that turn the country’s prodigious natural gas reserves into a range of liquid fuels exported by tanker around the world.