As part of a broader shift towards a knowledge-based economy, over recent years Qatar has put increasing importance on oil and gas research and development, with the stated aim of making the country a world-class technology hub.

The investment of tens of billions of dollars in research has attracted cutting-edge technology companies and academic organisations, giving Qatar a significant advantage over regional rivals, many of which are constrained by weak research and development infrastructure.

In 2010, Qatar pledged to spend 2.8 per cent of its GDP on research. It hit this target in 2013, spending $6bn on research, and is expected to spend another $6bn in 2014, according to a report published by R&D Magazine in December 2013. However, the nation still faces significant obstacles to becoming an energy technology nexus.

Challenges faced

According to a 2014 UK government report on Qatari science and technology funding, “research and innovation efforts are severely hampered by a small population, and a lack of local capacity and administrative support”.

In order to overcome these problems, Qatar has focused on international partnerships and the use of imported expatriate researchers.

This strategy has allowed it to invest in research and development at globally competitive levels at the same time as developing Qatari scientists and technical professionals over the long term.

On top of this, the efforts of the Qatar Foundation to create a supportive environment for technological innovation have successfully led to increased economic returns from the country’s research investment.

Science park

The Qatar Foundation’s Qatar Science and Technology Park (QSTP) lies at the heart of the country’s research push.

It was established in 2004 as a technology incubator and offers financial incentives to encourage companies and institutes from around the world to develop and commercialise their technology there.

In 2005, lawmakers made the park a free zone where foreign companies can wholly own tax-free operations, as long as they make the development of technology their main activity.

QSTP is located in Education City, a site it shares with local branches of international universities, and partnerships are encouraged between the foreign companies and academic institutions.

US universities with branches based at Education City include Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Georgetown, Northwestern, Texas A&M and Virginia Commonwealth.

More than 30 international technology-related companies have also opened offices at the technology park, among them the US’ ExxonMobil, GE and Microsoft, French energy company Total, the European aerospace and defence company EADS, and the UK/Dutch Shell Group.

Technological breakthroughs

The development of the science and technology park is already paying dividends. Since its inauguration, entities based there have seen a number of technological breakthroughs, some of which already directly benefit the oil and gas sector.

These include the development of new hydrocarbon products and exploration techniques that have come at a transformative time for Qatar.

The country is likely to see limited increases in gas production in the near future due to the ongoing moratorium at its giant gas reservoir, the North Field.

The moratorium was introduced in 2005 to allow a study of the field’s long-term viability and how best to develop production so its lifespan can be maximised.

The restrictions on developing the field and the limited outlook for new gas production have shifted the country’s focus to enhancing oil recovery and expanding petrochemicals production.

Major research projects being undertaken at QSTP target technologies directly involved in these areas as well as the gas-to-liquids (GTL) industry, and could well boost the country’s standing as a technology leader.

Commenting in a Gulf Organisation for Industrial Consulting study, Minister of Energy and Industry Mohammed bin Saleh al-Sada said that the petrochemicals industry is already the main beneficiary of the country’s research and development.

Shell investment

Shell is an anchor tenant at QSTP. It has based its Qatar Shell Research and Technology Centre at the park and has committed to invest as much as $100m over 10 years on the facility’s research and development programme.

As the operator of the world’s largest GTL facility, the Pearl GTL at Ras Laffan, Shell has a special interest in GTL research and technology.

Its current activities focus on testing GTL catalysts and GTL byproduct research, including water treatment and commercial uses for sulphur.

Shell is not the only GTL producer in Qatar. In 2007, the Oryx GTL plant began full-scale operations. The 32,400 barrel-a-day (b/d) facility is a joint venture between South Africa’s Sasol Synfuels International and Qatar’s national oil company Qatar Petroleum.

Fischer-Tropsch

GTL technologies use the Fischer-Tropsch process to turn natural gas into liquid hydrocarbons such as diesel, naphtha and paraffin.

Although the process was first developed in 1925, it remains an expensive way of producing liquid hydrocarbons, which has meant that in the past GTL and similar coal-to-liquid (CTL) technologies have mainly been used by regimes that lack access to fuel due to international sanctions.

These include Germany during World War Two, which used the Fisher-Tropsch process to provide up to half of its transportation fuel needs, and South Africa during the apartheid era.

Currently, only five GTL facilities exist globally, all of which are reliant on economies of scale and access to cheap feedstocks to make them viable.

Over the 30-year period preceding the commissioning of the $19bn Pearl GTL facility, Shell filed about 3,500 patents and the plant is behind a number of technical innovations, including the use of cutting-edge catalysts.

Future technological breakthroughs in this field, including new ways of making byproducts more profitable and reducing the size of GTL facilities, could increase the viability of GTL projects in countries such as the US that have less secure access to cheap feedstock and may lead to big profits for the holders of key patents.

The market to provide small-scale GTL facilities to stop gas flaring at oil fields has been valued at $375bn by New York-based investment firm Sanford C Bernstein.

Access to future technological breakthroughs in this field, and developing a workforce that is familiar with cutting-edge techniques could well put Qatar in a position where it can profit from schemes beyond its borders, making it less reliant on its domestic hydrocarbon assets.

GTL jet fuel

One of the major innovations to come out of Shell’s involvement with QSTP is GTL jet fuel.

The fuel has been introduced for commercial use by Qatar Airways and is the first new aviation fuel to be licensed for use in the industry for more than two decades. Its development involved collaboration between a wide range of international companies and academic institutions, including Qatar Airways, Airbus, Qatar Petroleum, Rolls-Royce and Texas A&M University.

Seismic innovation

As well as creating high-value downstream products, QSTP has also developed new technologies that should help the country develop its oil and gas assets.

In partnership with seismic survey specialists Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS), Shell has developed a seismic system that uses fibre-optic seismic receivers to provide increased sensitivity and more accurate seismic images.

Shell is also conducting research on carbonate reservoirs and carbon storage that could help improve hydrocarbons recovery from some of Qatar’s older fields.

Enhanced oil recovery

Danish energy company Maersk Oil has established its first global research centre at QSTP, with a focus on supporting its activities at the mature Al-Shaheen field, where it has managed to boost production to 300,000 b/d, more than a third of Qatar’s daily total, by extracting oil from the carbonate reservoirs.

Before Maersk started its enhanced oil recovery (EOR) operations in 1992, the field was deemed marginal and unattractive by other companies that estimated it would produce no more than 50,000 b/d.

Maersk has committed to investing $100m in its research centre, which includes a Digital Core Laboratory focused on EOR research, including long well performance, new well technology, well completion technology and EOR strategies. Currently, Maersk is piloting an EOR technique known as water alternating gas (WAG) injection offshore, supported by its Doha-based research teams.

Speaking about the Al-Shaheen field in July, the managing director of Maersk Oil Qatar, Lewis Affleck, said research is going to prove key to future developments.

“No single technology will bring us the key to unlocking the field’s full potential,” he said. “Rather, we must understand the field metre-by-metre, and apply the right approaches and technology to each individual challenge.”

Maersk’s laboratory studies the pores of oil-bearing rocks at a minute level, down to a diametre of 40 times less than that of a human hair. It uses its data results to make 3D images that reveal petrophysical and flow information.

Technology payoff

Since its establishment in 2004, QSTP has provided Qatar’s oil and gas sector with a tangible boost, and ongoing projects are expected to provide more support for oil producers, petrochemicals companies and GTL operations in the future.

Partnerships that have been forged in the science park will help Qatar develop domestic technological expertise that will make it even more of a leader in the fields of GTL, LNG and EOR.