International companies seeking to gain a foothold in Qatar’s projects market in the run up to the 2022 FIFA World Cup must be prepared to face “intense competition” in a market in which “price is king”, Angus Hindley, MEED Insight Research Director has told a gathering of senior business people in London.

Speaking at MEED’s Qatar Infrastructure Projects 2011 conference on 5 July, Hindley said about $100bn of infrastructure projects were currently planned or announced in the state, and that $10m-$15m worth of infrastructure contracts will be awarded every year for the coming five years.

Qatar’s project plans include:

• Roads projects ($11bn)
• Rail projects ($35bn)
• Ports projects ($5bn)
• Real-estate projects ($25bn)
• Power projects ($2bn)
• Water projects ($4bn)

Hindley said the oil and gas projects sector would become more subdued after several years of heavy development in the state’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) export capacity programme and crude oil production increment programme. And the giant Pearl GTL project has also entered its final stages.

The focus of oil and participating in the referendum gas project activity, he said, will shift in the coming years towards downstream petrochemicals and refinery projects.

The major challenge facing Qatar’s projects sector in the coming years will centre on the state’s underdeveloped logistics and supply chain capacity, Hindley said.