EXPLAINER: Qatar's vast wealth helps it host FIFA World Cup
Qatar is home to roughly 2.6 million people, but a small fraction of that — around 12% — are Qatari citizens
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Qatar is home to roughly 2.6 million people, but only a small fraction — around 12% — are Qatari citizens. They enjoy massive wealth and benefits fueled by Qatar's shared control of one of the world's largest reserves of natural gas.
The tiny country on the eastern tip of the Arabian Peninsula juts out into the Persian Gulf. There lies the North Field, the world's largest underwater gas field, which Qatar shares with Iran. The gas field holds approximately 10% of the world’s known natural gas reserves.
Oil and gas have made the 50-year-old country fantastically wealthy and influential. In a matter of decades, Qatar's roughly 300,000 citizens have been pulled from the hard livelihood of fishing and pearl diving.
The country is now an international transit hub with a profitable national airline, a force behind the influential Al Jazeera news network and is paying for the expansion of the largest U.S. military base in the Mideast.
