"For example, the entire country of Qatar shares a single IP address"

Which is ridiculous of course.

Unofficially IP addresses can be bought and defacto transferred. They could certainly given a budget do that despite what it says here:

http://www.apnic.net/services/services-apnic-provides/helpde...

Ok here it is (and I also have other personal knowledge of this happening):

http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/microsoft-pays-no...