The last time oil prices bottomed out in the late 1990s, Qatar was on the verge of bankruptcy. But the new emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, took a gamble.
Aware that his emirate straddled the world’s third-largest gas reserves, he borrowed heavily on bond markets to fund export facilities that could chill natural gas into liquids that could reach hitherto unreachable markets in Asia, Europe and the US.
