Doha, Nov 03: Qatar's enthusiasm for a pipeline that would link countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and allow for the export of oil from the Arabian Sea received a tepid welcome from the Council's oil ministers meeting in the Qatari capital overnight. Both Qatar and the GCC had said before the talks that the pipeline project would top the agenda of the Doha meeting that gathered ministers or deputy ministers from Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
However no mention of the pipeline, which is aimed at diversifying the region's export routes, was made in opening remarks by the meeting's chairman, Qatari Oil Minister Abdullah Bin Hamad al-Attiyah.
He did however say afterwards that the project was discussed Sunday night but that it needed further study and that a feasibility report would be sent to the council's foreign ministers before the GCC summit in Kuwait city in late December.
"We are going to study it very carefully and we would conclude it either way," said Attiyah refusing to disclose the cost of the project or the exact routing of the pipeline.
Saudi Arabia's Oil Minister Ali al-Nuaimi rejected suggestions his country, the world's top oil exporter, had shot down the proposal, saying all pipeline projects were "examined by special committees."
Ministers from the region's other oil heavyweights, Kuwait and the UAE, were absent from Sunday's meeting and were represented by their deputies.
Bureau Report