QATAR - Abdullah Bin Hamad Al Attiyah.
The minister of energy and industry, Attiyah is also minister of electricity and water. The portfolio of electricity and water was merged with his ministry on Jan. 12, 1999. The former electricity and water minister, Ahmad Mohammed Ali Al Subai'e, was then dropped from the cabinet as his role in that sector was criticised by various quarters. Attiyah is chairman and managing director of QP, having become head of the NOC in a decree issued by the emir on Nov. 20, 1996, as Dr. Jaber Al Marri was removed from this position.
Attiyah is close to both the emir and Prime Minister Shaikh Abdullah Bin Khalifa. He is a hard working technocrat, very much in tune with what Shaikh Hamad wants to do in Qatar, i.e. to modernise the economy and to build up the gas sector on a massive scale. One of Attiyah's non-Qatari advisors is Dr. Ramzi Salman, former CEO of Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organisation (SOMO) and former deputy secretary-general of OPEC, who advises him on oil. Algeria's former energy minister Youcef Yousfi has acted as an advisor to Attiyah on LNG.
Attiyah was first appointed as energy and industry minister on Sept. 1, 1992, after the departments of petroleum and electricity were merged with that of industry. A power struggles between him and Dr. Marri marked much of the period from then, as Marri was backed by Shaikh Khalifa. It has been rumoured that, as emir, Shaikh Khalifa repeatedly prevented Attiyah from sacking Marri. Attiyah moved to restructure QGPC (now QP). By October 1992, he had reshuffled the board of QGPC, appointed a new finance manager, brought several departments under his direct control and created a new human resources department from four former sections. In the following months, many of the personnel who had not changed jobs in years were reshuffled.
Between 1992 and 1995, Attiyah was involved in a power struggle with Marri with both having competing views about how to develop the Qatari hydrocarbon sector. Eventually, Attiyah prevailed, with the continuing support of then Crown Prince Shaikh Hamad. When the coup of Shaikh Hamad occurred, on June 27, 1995, Marri was with Shaikh Khalifa in West Europe. For some reasons, Marri was allowed to resume his function as QGPC managing director and returned to Doha. Marri, credited with pioneering the North Field development, was also allowed to retain his position as chairman of the two LNG ventures, QatarGas and RasGas.