NY -- Standard&Poor's CreditWire 1/5/1999 -- Standard&Poor's today affirmed the State of Qatar's triple-'B' long-term foreign currency sovereign credit rating and its 'A-3'short-term foreign currency rating. At the same time, Standard&Poor's assigned a long-term local currency rating of triple-'B'-plus and a short-term local currency rating of 'A-2'. The outlook on all of the ratings is stable. Qatar's ratings and stable outlook reflect: -- Possession of the world's third-largest reserve of natural gas. Qatar's gas production is likely to expand sharply in the next few years, thanks to sizable liquefied natural gas (LNG) and other hydrocarbon-based export projects, which began coming on-stream in 1997. -- Substantial increases in crude oil production capacity, to 710,000 barrels
