Tasweeq to be integrated with Qatar Petroleum

Qatar has revealed plans to integrate the company that sells its hydrocarbon exports with Qatar Petroleum as it continues to slim down government operations.

Under the plans Qatar International Petroleum Marketing Company’s (Tasweeq) employees assets and customer relationships will be moved to QP by the end of the year.

The company was previously independent from Qatar’s other oil and gas firms, buying and reselling products including propane and Butane from QP, QatarGas and RasGas.

Qatar Petroleum said the combination would enable it to deliver “superior” products and services by combining Tasweeq’s products with its own offering.

“The integration of Tasweeq into QP will unquestionably help us to enhance our ability to offer superior integrated products and services in an ever more competitive and demanding market environment,” said Qatar Petroleum president and chief executive Saad Sherida Al Kaabi.

Tasweeq’s management and employees will continue to run its operations during the transition.

The company said last year it sold 44 million tonnes of petroleum products annually with a quarter of its sales going to Japan.

The integration is the latest shakeup of QP after a restructuring that has seen the takeover of its foreign investment business and the sale of its non-core assets.

Government entities and sovereign wealth fund Qatar Investment Authority have also been streamlined in recent months as the country tackles a budget deficit linked to low oil prices.

Read: Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund creates new $100bn unit

Officials said last week they expected the country to run a budget deficit for at least three years.

In an economic update, the government also said its 2016 deficit would be larger than the QAR 46.5bn projected in December, rising from 4.8 per cent to 7.8 per cent of GDP.