The remaining OPEC crude oil prices are hovering in the US at $50 a barrel till the end of the current year, with the forecast of a fiscal surplus of approximately 5.4 billion riyals in the Qatari budget to go in vain automatically, according to spokesman Ibrahim Ibrahim of Qatar Petroleum.
Also, the forecast is of deficits ranging from 20 to 24 billion riyals. Regarding the decline in prices, the indicative price for a barrel in the budget is about $13.8, and consequently, the decline of petroleum revenues reached up to 29 billion riyals.
Qatar set the price of a barrel of oil in its supplementary budget until the end of 2015 at $65 a barrel, considering the expected deficit options. The country may find a good option in the issuance of sovereign bonds, especially because it has assigned a high credit category, giving it preferential treatment in terms of attractive interest rates, through which it can adjust and rationalise an estimated expenditure of 164 billion riyals without liquidating any of its outer investments.
According to the governor of the Central Bank of Qatar, spokesman Abdullah bin Saud Al Thani, the hydrocarbon sector – the price volatile market is still-Qatar’s general budget provider of capital, by the production up to 600,000 barrels of oil and 77 million tonnes of liquefied gas a year, that puts the government in face of the challenges of diversifying sources of income in the non-oil sector to meet the current expenditure requirements and high investment, and the completion of the giant projects and on the top of them the World Cup in 2022 and transportations’ projects, such as the metro, train and the seaport.
