Perched on a northern tip of Qatar, about an hour's drive from the gleaming capital Doha and at the end of "Route 77", stands the secretive city of Ras Laffan.

Behind its closely guarded gates, Ras Laffan is home to 30,000 people, the best white truffles in Qatar, apparently, and a turtle conservation project.

It is also one of the most significant industrial sites on the planet.

"Welcome to the gas capital of the world," says our guide Wissam, as he ushers a small group of journalists into Ras Laffan on a rare government-invited press tour of the site.

He is not exaggerating.

Ras Laffan is Qatar's port for the production and export of liquified natural gas, an industrial process whereby gas is cooled to -162 degrees Celsius (-260 Fahrenheit), allowing it to be more easily shipped around the world.

The LNG comes from the huge North Field, 80 kilometres (50 miles) further north of Ras Laffan, a 6,000 square kilometre (2,316 square mile) site in Gulf waters, almost half the size of Qatar itself.

Since the first shipment sailed to Japan in 1997, Qatar now produces up to 77 million tonnes of gas each year.

In context, a study by Royal Dutch Shell published this month said worldwide demand reached 265 million tonnes in 2016.

Using those figures, tiny Qatar is responsible for 30 percent of the global LNG market.

source: AFP