DUBAI (Reuters) – Qatar posted a budget surplus of 30 billion riyals ($8.19 billion) for the third quarter of 2022, boosted by rocketing oil and gas revenues, the state news agency said on Tuesday, citing data from the finance ministry.
The surplus in the same period in 2021 stood at 900 million riyals. Government figures showed that spending in the third quarter of 2022 stood at 51.8 billion riyals.
Total revenues in Q3 amounted to 81.8 billion riyals, of which over 93%, or 76.3 billion riyals, came from oil and gas, the statement said.
The Gulf Arab state, currently hosting the soccer World Cup, is one of the world’s largest exporters of natural gas and has benefited from huge windfalls from soaring global oil and gas prices.
Oil and gas revenues surged 67% in the first half of 2022 compared with the same period in 2021.
The budget surplus in the first half of the year stood at 47.3 billion riyals, up from 4 billion riyals in the prior-year period.
Qatar has seen rising demand for gas from Europe since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February. Last month Qatar agreed a 15-year deal to provide Germany with 2 million tonnes of LNG annually from 2026.
($1 = 3.6616 Qatar riyals)
($1 = 3.6699 Qatar riyals)
(Reporting by Rachna Uppal)
