Natural gas Natural gas was discovered off of Qatar's east coast in the 1970s, in an area that came to be known as the
North Field. The north-east portion of the municipality, known as
Ras Laffan, was converted to a
natural gas processing center. At present, Ras Laffan accommodates the world's largest
GTL plant, the
Pearl GTL, which was constructed as a result of a partnership between
Royal Dutch Shell and
QatarEnergy. Qatar is also the world's second largest supplier of
helium, which can be extracted from natural gas. All of the country's helium is produced by
Qatargas' two helium plants in Ras Laffan, which were commissioned in 2005 and 2013, respectively. In June 2017, amidst the
Qatar diplomatic crisis, the government ordered the two plants to be shut down indefinitely. Despite being overtaken in importance by the extraction and construction industries, agriculture is still one of the largest industries in Al Khor. Domestically, 35% of Qatar's total farmland was based in Al Khor in 2015, putting it just behind the municipality of
Al Rayyan which had a 36% share of Qatar's farmland. Al Khor, however, had the highest density of farms. There were 344 farms spread out over 16,943 hectares, 220 of which were mixed operations, 119 were occupied solely by crops, and 3 reared livestock. The municipality had a livestock inventory of 160,675, the majority of which were sheep (109,337). Livestock numbers surpassed that of all other municipalities.
Root vegetables such as
carrots,
potatoes,
onions and
fodder beets are some of the most important crops produced by Qatari farms, the latter of which is grown in large quantities at Al Dawoodiyah in Al Khor. In terms of
artisanal fishing vessels,
Al Khor had the highest amount out of any city surveyed in 2015 at 234 vessels. The city also had the most sailors (1,408) and was also the only major city to record an increase in the rate of sailors from 2010 to 2015. After
Qatar was embargoed by
Saudi Arabia, the
United Arab Emirates,
Bahrain and
Egypt in June 2017, it launched a project to fly 10,000 cows to Qatar to reach its goal of food self-sufficiency. This project is based on a two-million square meter plot owned by the
Baladna agricultural company in the Umm Al Hawaya locality of the municipality. One of the most important agricultural research stations in Qatar is located in
Rawdat Al Faras. The research station, established in 1976, consists of a laboratory, a warehouse and five palm tree fields hosting thousands of palm trees. Capitalizing on the municipality's rich maritime tradition, the facility of the Aquatic Fisheries and Research Centre was completed in
Ras Matbakh by
Ashghal in 2017 at a cost of QR 237.7 million. Three major government-owned plant nurseries are located in Al Khor; two are in the village of Al Rashida, and one is in Rawdat Bakheela. Plants grown in these nurseries are used for research and also distributed to government ministries. The nurseries in Al Rashida each span and were established in 2003. There is a farmers' market in Al Khor Yard. ==Housing==