Qatar, the world's biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG), has earmarked costs of $25 billion to support the expansion and development of its domestic petrochemical industry over the next decade.

Mohammed Al-Sada, Qatari Energy Minister, said the expansion meant to increase the country's petrochemical production capacity to 23 million tonnes by 2020 from the current 9.2 million tonnes, Qatar News Agency reported.

"We will spend $25 billion on creating additional petrochemical industries as an important feedstock for small and medium-sized companies," Abdulrahman Al-Shaibi, managing director of the Qatar Financial Center Authority, said.

The oil producer, which became the world's biggest LNG exporter over the last decade, had imposed a moratorium on further export development of its huge North Field until 2014. The site is the source of its massive gas reserves.

The LNG process entails cooling the gas to a liquid, thus can be transported over long distances by tanker instead of just via pipeline. It is re-gasified on the receiving end and injected into existing transit pipeline systems for delivery to consumers.

Construction of LNG receiving terminals in Asia and Europe is being fast-tracked, a testament to the booming LNG industry and the two markets' urgent and large demand of the commodity. The two continents will need to not only meet rising demand but restrain as well the prices that long-term pipeline-delivered gas direct.

Qatar forecasts its LNG output at 77 million tonnes annually until 2015. This may increase depending on the speed of eliminating blockages from existing facilities.

Qatar signed and agreed with Royal Dutch Shell in December to develop a $6.4 billion petrochemicals complex in the Ras Laffan industrial city, which will yield 1.5 million tonnes of mono-ethylene glycol and 300,000 tonnes of linear alpha olefin annually. Most have been targeted for export to Asian markets.

Qatar, which strongly believes LNG will become the wave of the future, was the first country to commit all of its production to the LNG trade.