Former Qatari Energy Minister Abdullah Al Attiyah Dies at 73

Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah, the former Qatari energy minister who oversaw the development of the country’s liquefied natural gas industry, died in London on Wednesday. He was 73. Al Attiyah was born in 1953, nearly two decades before Qatar gained independence.

Attiyah grew up in a country with few formal institutions.

He once said births in his clan were recorded by an uncle and that a calendar mix-up left his official birth year incorrect. His family was prominent. His second cousin and childhood friend was Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa, who served as emir from 1995 to 2013.

He remained in government for decades and later credited the emir’s vision for the country’s energy expansion. He shared personal stories, including a conversation with a Libyan intelligence official in Paris and an account of avoiding an attempted kidnapping in 1975. Colleagues and acquaintances recalled his encyclopedic knowledge of regional history and his personal warmth.