Doha: Qatar's estimated third quarter 2010 gross domestic product (GDP) rose 21 per cent on the year to 111.25 billion riyals (Dh112 billion), official figures showed yesterday.
Third quarter GDP also jumped 13 per cent compared to the 98.38 billion riyal figure in the second quarter of last year, the Qatar Statistics Authority said.
Mining and quarrying, which includes the oil and gas industry, was the biggest sector accounting for over 51 per cent of Qatar's GDP in the third quarter last year, and grew 36 per cent against the same period in 2009, as production of liquefied natural gas, or LNG, ramped up.
The world's largest exporter of LNG last month celebrated reaching its 77 million-ton-a-year production quota of the fuel. It has poured billions of dollars into a new generation of liquidation facilities or gas "super-trains" of late.
By contrast, construction GDP grew sluggishly, rising two per cent in the third quarter last year compared to the same three months in 2009, while finance, insurance, real estate and business services increased 17 per cent in the same period.
Growth figures
- 112b: Qatar's third-quarter GDP in dirhams
- 21%: increase on corresponding figures a year earlier
Halul wins QP contracts
Halul Offshore Services, fully owned by Qatar Navigation, has been awarded two oilfield diving contracts worth 1.2 billion Qatari riyals (Dh1.2 billion) with Qatar Petroleum, or QP.
The first contract is for three years, while the second is for five years, Qatar Navigation said in a statement posted on the Doha bourse website on Thursday.
Halul, which was set up in 2000 and runs a fleet of 33 company-owned vessels, will provide specialised deep water diving services on QP oilfields, it added.
Shares in Qatar Navigation, which provides shipping services mainly for the energy sector and merged with Qatar Shipping earlier in the year, last traded down 0.4 per cent at 93.3 riyals in a positive overall market.
