From Black Gold to Frozen Gas: How Qatar Became an Energy Superpower
By Michael D. Tusiani with Anne-Marie Johnson
August 2023
Today, Qatar is among the world’s wealthiest countries. Its rich hydrocarbon resources have transformed this small Gulf state into an energy powerhouse, funded its outsized global ambitions, and allowed it to forge an identity separate from those of its large and powerful neighbors.
Drawing on Michael D. Tusiani’s firsthand accounts and deep personal experience in the energy sector and Anne-Marie Johnson’s years of reporting, this book explores how Qatar became a major player in the global energy market. It follows the twists and turns of Qatar’s road to riches, from the first interest by British and American oil companies in the 1920s to the decades it took to develop the North field—the world’s largest gas field—following its discovery in 1971 through the country’s emergence as one of the world’s leading exporters of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the 2000s.
From Black Gold to Frozen Gas details the technical, financial, and political challenges involved in getting Qatar’s first LNG projects off the ground. It shows how, despite missteps and setbacks, the foundations of today’s Qatar were laid over many decades. And it chronicles epic rivalries within the ruling Al Thani family, among oil companies, and in the geopolitics of the energy landscape.
Part historical analysis, part in-the-room narrative, From Black Gold to Frozen Gas is the definitive account of oil and gas development in Qatar.
About the Author
Michael D. Tusiani is the chairman emeritus of the energy consulting and brokerage firm Poten & Partners. He joined Poten in 1973 and served as its chairman and chief executive officer from 1983 to 2016. His career has involved all aspects of oil and gas trading and transportation. Tusiani is the author or coauthor of five books, most recently LNG: After the Pandemic (2023).
Anne-Marie Johnson is an award-winning oil industry journalist who covered Qatar and the Gulf states as a senior editor at the Middle East Economic Survey and at Poten & Partners, where she edited the firm’s flagship LNG publication. She began her career at Mobil as an analyst in the Middle East Department.
