The discovery of natural gas off the shores of Qatar has transformed this inhospitable Persian Gulf peninsula into a major geopolitical player.
The authors of “From Black Gold to Frozen Gas” probably didn’t intend it, but they’ve provided grist for an epic miniseries. The new show would be a mash-up of “Succession” and the wildly popular 1983 series “The Thorn Birds.” But instead of the latter’s multigenerational saga about a farming family’s struggles in the inhospitable Australian Outback, the new show would trace the multigenerational story of one family’s struggles on an inhospitable Persian Gulf peninsula. And it would feature, like “Succession,” the labyrinthine maneuverings of a globe-spanning family business, with all the family intrigue and infighting that ensues. The main difference is that “Qatar” would pivot around natural gas, the single most important energy commodity of the early 21st century.
Michael Tusiani is the chairman emeritus of the energy consulting firm Poten & Partners; Anne-Marie Johnson is an oil-industry journalist. Their book details Qatar’s tortuous journey from former British protectorate to global energy titan.
The country declared independence in 1971 and since then has become, per capita, one of the world’s wealthiest nations and a consequential geopolitical player. Its rise began with Britain’s need for petroleum—the black gold of the title—when Winston Churchill, then the first lord of the admiralty, switched the naval fleet off coal in 1911. But, as the authors chronicle, Qatar’s ruling Al Thani family eventually shifted the country’s focus to liquefied natural gas (LNG).
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Mark P. Mills is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute; a partner in Cottonwood Venture Partners, an energy-tech venture fund.
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