Oil shock: Qatar withdraws from OPEC

Qatar, tiny and energy-rich, has announced that it will pull out of OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, in January.

Qatar's state energy affairs minister, Saad Sherida al-Kaabi, made the surprise announcement at a press conference held Monday in Doha, Doha.

Qatar is the world's largest exporter of liquefied natural gas.

Qatar, a country of 2.6 million inhabitants where more than 10% of the population are citizens, discovered North Field in 1971, the year of its independence.

The engineers took years to discover the vast reserves of this field, which propelled Qatar to the third largest in the world, behind Russia and Iran, with whom it shares the northern field.

– AP