“Qatar turns the impossible into reality.” This sentence alone sums up what this small emirate, barely larger than Corsica, has been able to achieve in fifty years. For a long time, Qatar was nicknamed “God’s Forgotten Land”. In the 19th century, his name did not even appear on geographical maps. However, Qatar has become, thanks to its energy resources, one of the richest countries in the world and an essential geopolitical player.
The documentary, Qatar: In the land of a thousand and one tricks, directed by Alfred de Montesquiou and broadcast on Sunday November 13 on France 5, explains how this tiny outgrowth of the Arabian Peninsula made its fortune and how it does everything possible to shine on the international scene. One of his latest masterstrokes: becoming the world capital of sport for the time of a football World Cup.
But if the film explores the conditions of attribution of this sporting event in Qatar, sources of many controversies both on the environmental level, and on the human rights, the director also returns to the risks that this country took in order to become the world’s leading gas exporter.
Qatar’s economy was based until the 1930s on the trade in pearls caught in its waters. Under British protectorate for 55 years, the country refused to join the federation of the United Arab Emirates when it gained independence in 1971 and modernized itself thanks to the modest oil deposits it exploits on its soil. But it was under the reign of Sheikh Hamad Ben Khalifa, who seized power by overthrowing his father, that the country really took off.
“The real reason, when in 1995 Emir Hamad took power, confides in the documentary, Bertrand Besancenot, French ambassador to Qatar from 1998 to 2002, is that there was, basically, a real debate between the father and the son on the way to manage the emirate and to precisely take the gas turn, even if it meant going into debt for years, which been the case.” At the time, liquefied gas was much less profitable than oil and Qatar was struggling to find investors. Sheikh Hamad persists, succeeds in convincing the Total company and “builds the largest gas terminal in the world. The cost of the project? 20 billion dollars”.
Less polluting than oil and coal, natural gas has for several years been the most widely used energy resource in industry, the tertiary sector and the residential sector. This has allowed Qatar to achieve extraordinary growth in a very short period of time.
“This tiny, heavily indebted country, whose oil reserves were drying up and which could have easily gone bankrupt, suddenly became one of the richest countries in the world.”
Andrew England, Financial Times reporter“Qatar: In the land of a thousand and one tricks”
While Europe is facing an energy crisis unprecedented since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the gas produced by Qatar has now become essential for the world’s energy security.
The documentary, Qatar: In the land of a thousand and one tricks, directed by Alfred de Montesquiou and broadcast on Sunday November 13 at 8:55 p.m. on France 5.