wife of the Emir of Qatar
In 1957, Khalifa was named as the minister of education.[5] Then he was appointed the deputy Emir.[5] He was named as the heir apparent on 24 October 1960.[6] In the 1960s he also served as the prime minister and the minister of finance.[5]
On 22 February 1972, Sheikh Khalifa became the Emir of Qatar, seizing power from his cousin and then emir Ahmad bin Ali Al Thani.[7] His initial activity was the process of the reorganization of the government.[4] Next he appointed a foreign minister and an adviser to himself regarding the day-to-day affairs.[4] On 19 April 1972, he amended the Constitution and expanded the Cabinet by appointing more ministers. Diplomatic relations were also established with a number of the foreign countries at ambassadorial level.
On 18 July 1989, the cabinet was reshuffled for the first time, replacing most of the previous ministers and making it consist of 15 ministers. The Cabinet was again reshuffled under his premiership on 1 September 1992, expanding it to 17 members.[8]
The state revenue from oil sector had increased as the result of the rising of a number of production sharing agreements with foreign oil companies. Two production-sharing agreements were signed with the Standard Oil Company of Ohio in January 1985 and Amoco in February 1986. In January 1989, another production sharing agreement was signed between Qatar and the France State owned oil company Elf Aquitaine. In the middle of 1991, production of gas in the Qatar North Field, the world’s largest single field of non-associated gas commenced, which has proven gas of reserves of around 250 trillion cubic feet and probable reserves of 500 trillion cubic feet. While the search for finding more oil deposits in Qatar continued, Qatar built an industrial base in order to reduce dependence on the oil sector.