President Joe Biden will welcome Qatar’s governing Sheikh at the White House on Monday, hoping for the gas-rich country to step up once more to assist the West as it faces the threat of a European energy crisis if Russia invades Ukraine.
Qatar played a key role in last summer’s US military evacuations of Afghan aid workers and American citizens in Afghanistan, hosting the largest American air base in the Middle East, and has served as a go-between with the Taliban for the last three U.S. administrations as they sought to end America’s longest war.
With 100,000 Russian troops stationed near the Ukraine border, experts say that Qatar, the world’s second-largest exporter of liquefied natural gas, is willing to aid Biden once more, but may only be able to provide limited support if Russia continues to block energy supplies to Europe.
“After Afghanistan, Qatar sees this as an opportunity to further improve its ties with the US,” said Yesar Al-Maleki, a Middle East Institute energy economist in Washington. “However, because there isn’t an abundance of supply, it will be quite difficult.”
Qatar is already producing at full capacity, with a large portion of its supply contracted to Asia. Even if some of the United States’ Pacific allies, such as India, Japan, and South Korea, are convinced to divert some of the LNG orders they have committed to Europe, it will only have a minor influence on lessening the hit, according to energy analysts.
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