The Qatar Petroleum (QP) has given out 1063 contracts worth some 10.6 billion U.S. dollars since 2003, Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) reported on Saturday.

Qatar's Energy and Industry Minister Abed Bin Hamad al-Attiya released the figures in a business meeting held in Doha on Saturday, said KUNA.

Al-Attiya was quoted as saying that the contracts included design, engineering, construction and maintenance work concerning QP's booming development.

Among the total contracts, Qatar's national companies obtained 794 items with a worth of 3.3 billion dollars, said the minister.

He added that out of some 50,000 purchase orders that has been issued by QP for three years, contracts worth of some 300 million dollars were awarded to Qatar's domestic companies.

State-owned Qatar Petroleum deals with almost all the oil and natural gas industries of the Gulf state, which possesses 15 percent of world's total oil and gas reserves.

Source: Xinhua