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Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund isn’t slowing its dealmaking even as the Iran war gutted the state’s revenue by 42% in the first half of the year, a senior executive said.
The war “hasn’t impacted our progress,” Mohsin Pirzada, head of funds at Qatar Investment Authority, told Semafor. “We continue to invest, we continue to deploy.” Before the war, QIA said it planned to invest $500 billion in the US alone over the next decade. The fund had expected to nearly double in size, boosted by an 85% expansion of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) output by 2030. Those plans have now been delayed — an Iranian attack on the Ras Laffan complex knocked out about 17% of its existing capacity. Qatar’s economy is expected to contract 15.6% this year, and the government will likely post a deficit.“We’re obviously very mindful that we manage the surplus wealth for the state of Qatar, and that is largely derived by our LNG exports,” Pirzada said. “We continue to stand in a very strong fiscal position. In terms of the buffers that are in place, not just at QIA but elsewhere, we feel fairly comfortable.”
QIA announced a $20 billion investment partnership with JPMorgan last month, following a $25 billion agreement with Goldman Sachs just before the Iran war began.
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QIA, with around $580 billion in assets, is a significant backer of Wall Street firms and US technology. Its business-as-usual stance mirrors that of its Gulf peers: with the exception of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, all are on track for one of their most active years of dealmaking ever, according to fund tracker GlobalSWF.
Qatar has been one of the most impacted Gulf countries by the US-Iran war. Unlike some of its neighbors, it has no export routes that bypass the Strait of Hormuz, and has been reluctant to move LNG tankers — which are more flammable and expensive than crude carriers — through the strait.
Despite the disruptions, there are signs of recovery. QatarEnergy Chief Executive Saad al-Kaabi said last month that the expansion project is expected to begin production in the first half of 2027. Meanwhile, an LNG export facility in Texas, majority owned by QatarEnergy in a joint venture with ExxonMobil, shipped its first cargoes in April.
Notable
- Qatar cut government department budgets by around a third and funding for overseas aid by about 85% to cope with the financial strain of the war, the Financial Times reported.
- A “dinosaur” gas tanker is one part of an ambitious effort to revive Qatari energy shipments, Bloomberg reported.