* U.S.-educated engineer rose through ranks to top job
* CEO brushes off boycott as business "stress test"
* Al-Kaabi aims to keep Qatar's No. 1 LNG exporter ranking
By Rania El Gamal and Dmitry Zhdannikov
DOHA, May 8 (Reuters) - When Qatar's Gulf neighbours andEgypt sought to isolate Doha with a boycott imposed last year,the nation's top energy official kept a cool head and ensuredoil and gas exports barely felt a hiccup.
Saad Al-Kaabi, a U.S.-educated engineer who rose the ranksto become chief executive of Qatar Petroleum (QP) in 2014, had acontingency plan to hand to maintain energy flows that accountfor 60 percent of the Arab nation's state revenues.
"It was the best stress test we can have for our system toshow whether we are really up for a challenge," Al-Kaabi said ina Reuters interview in Doha, brushing of the boycott's impact.
"When the blockade happened we had a business continuityplan in every company," he said in his simply furnished, firstfloor office in the capital of a nation that has become theworld's wealthiest per capita because of its huge gas reserves.
His understated office layout gives little indication thatAl-Kaabi is one of Qatar's most powerful figures, a man who isnot a member of the ruling family but who has nonethelessclimbed to one of the country's top jobs.
He has gained a reputation among executives of the world'senergy majors, such as Exxon, Shell and Total, as a reliable counterpart for energy projects thathave made the tiny nation of 2.6 million people the biggestexporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG) on the planet.
"QP has been a top partner for many years and Saad made iteven more solid," said an executive at one of the three majors.
His steady hand proved critical when neighbours SaudiArabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, alongside Egypt,severed diplomatic, economic and transport ties in June,accusing Doha of supporting terrorism, charges Qatar denies.
The boycott came as a particular surprise given Al-Kaabi hadbeen in talks months earlier to supply gas to Saudi Arabia andincrease supplies to UAE. Qatar has continued pumping gas to UAEunder existing deals despite the boycott.
Undeterred by sanctions, Al-Kaabi announced a plan on July 4to produce 100 million tonnes of LNG a year, equivalent to athird of current global supplies, in the next five to sevenyears.
CATALYST FOR CHANGE
Al-Kaabi, who said his business strategy was driven bycommercial factors not politics, said the boycott meant Qatarwould no longer consider pipelines for gas exports.
"Basically the decision was: if this is what they are doingto us I am just going to go full LNG and never think of pipelinesupplies in the future," Al-Kaabi said
He added that "if things go back to normal in the future"Qatar's neighbours could buy LNG rather than piped gas.
Al-Kaabi's restructuring of QP, one of the world's biggestenergy firms with a daily output of 4.8 million barrels of oilequivalent, had also put the company on a better footing tomanage the challenge of the boycott, although the initialcatalyst for corporate changes was the low price of oil.
Crude plunged from above $100 a barrel in 2014 to below $30in 2016, prompting Al-Kaabi and other industry executives tofocus on cutting costs and tightening up a corporate structuresthat had expanded in the oil boom years.
"My vision is to focus on our core business and get out ofanything that is not core business," he said. "A lot of peopletalked about downsizing, I was trying to rightsize QP."
QP integrated Qatar Petroleum International, which had beenformed in 2007 as a wholly owned foreign investment arm, andTasweeq, its marketing arm. He also merged two state-owned LNGproducers, Qatargas and RasGas.
Al-Kaabi said QP's operating costs would be 4 billion Qatarriyals ($1.1 billion) a year lower due to the restructuring,which included cutting As many as 8,000 jobs to create a morestreamlined operation.
Responding to the boycott, QP also said it would set up afuel oil bunkering business in Qatar after ships heading toQatar were banned from using the UAE's Fujairah bunkering hub.
Al-Kaabi, who joined QP in 1986 after graduating fromPennsylvania State University, is also chairman of Qatar'spetrochemicals, metals and fertiliser industries, and he sits onthe board of Qatar Investment Authority, the world's ninthlargest sovereign wealth fund with about $300 billion in assets.
Before becoming QP's CEO, he had worked in the reservoir andfield development department, and then becoming manager of gasdevelopment for the North Field, the huge gas reservoir thatQatar shares with Iran on the other side of the Gulf.
Al-Kaabi's vision to develop LNG production beyond Qatar'sborders remains undimmed. "We are not just going to be inQatar," he said. "We are always going to strive to be the numberone LNG producer in the world for a very long time."
($1 = 3.6400 Qatar riyals)
(Editing by Edmund Blair)
