Qatar works hard to maintain its daily output capacity of 850 thousand barrels of crude oil while work is in progress on the North Gas Field development project, which is scheduled to be completed in 2010 and is estimated to produce more than 18 billion cubic feet of liquefied natural gas (LNG) per day.
The Qatari leadership also seeks to increase the output capacity of LNG to more than 60 million tons per year from the current level of about 18 million tons per year.
Apart from the four trains of gas liquids operating at present in Mesaieed, the future development projects of the north gas field will base their LNG plants in Ras Laffan Industrial City.
Natural gas liquids complex and oil refineries complex are 100% owned by QP.

Production and Exports
In 2005, Qatar's average output of crude oil was 845 thousand barrels per day. The average exported quantity of crude oil and its products has exceeded (570) thousand barrels for the same year.

The main productive oil and gas fields include:

First: Onshore Operations:

Dukhan Oil Field
Exploration for oil in Dukhan area started in 1935, and Dukhan field was the first to be discovered with commercial quantity of oil when the first oil well was dug between the two years 1939 and 1940. This field is 65 km long and 5 km wide.
Dukhan oil field is composed of three crude oil reservoirs and one unassociated gas reservoir. Production started at Dukhan field in 1947 and the first shipment of its oil was exported in December 1949.
The output capacity of crude oil at Dukhan field amounts to 335 thousand barrels per day, while the production installations of associated and unassociated gas, natural gas liquids and condensates are based in Arab D Block. In 1998, work started to recycle Arab D Block gas by processing 800 million cubic feet of gas per day to produce 36 thousand barrels of condensate.

Second: Offshore Operations
Offshore oil fields play a vital role in the development of the oil sector in the State of Qatar. The two offshore fields, which are oprated by QP, are Mydan Mahzam and Bul Hanine. Other fields such as Al Shaheen, Al Rayyan, Al Khaleej, Idd Al Sharqi and Al Karkara are operated according to exploration and development sharing agreements (DPSA) with a number of major international oil firms. According to these agreements, the companies invest in the development and share the production with the State.
QP produces crude oil, associated gas and condensate from the two fields of Mydan Mahzam and Bul Hanine, which are based on the Qatari territorial waters.

Offshore Fields

Idd Al Sharqi
Discovered in 1960, this field was the first offshore field and the second generally to be discovered in Qatari territorial waters. It lies 80 to 85 kilometers off the East Coast of Qatar and started production in 1964.
Production level in 2006 came close to 144 thousand barrels a day at Idd Al Sharqi North Dome and 10 thousand barrels a day at Idd Al Sharqi South Dome.

Mydan Mahzam
Discovered in 1936, this field covers an area of about 30 sq. kilometers.

Bul Hanine
Discovered in 1965, this field belongs to Qatar since 1969 as a result of marine border delineation and distribution of border islands between Qatar and Abu Dhabi. It is one of the largest offshore fields, covering about 80 sq. kilometers.

Al Bandaq
Discovered in 1964, this field covers 20 sq. km. It strides the marine borderline between Qatar and Abu Dhabi and its production is divided between the two countries.

Al Shaheen
This field was discovered by Maersk in 1992, and it has reserves of about 780 million barrels of oil according to the estimates of 2003. Production started in this field in 1994 with an average daily production capacity of 30 thousand barrels a day. The annual rate of production during 2008 rose to (331) thousands bpd, thus making the accumulative production of the field (831) million bpd.

Al Rayyan
This field was Initially operated by Wintershall Consortium with ARCO, then BP as operators before Anadarko finally took over operation in 2002. According to its development plan, the field is expected to witness a stable period of stability, during which its out put capacity is expected to jump to 25 thousand barrels per day.

Al Khaleej
This field was discovered by the French company Elf Aquitaine in 1991. In 1997, the daily production capacity at this field was about 10 thousand barrels. The annual rate of Octene production settled down at (38) barrels per day.

Al Karkara and A Structure
These structures were discovered in the 1970s of the last century, but they were not commercially significant at that time. In July 1997, an exploration and development sharing agreement was concluded with the Japanese consortium Qatar Petroleum Development (QPD), who presented a comprehensive development plan of the field in 2003, which QP endorsed.