Qatar’s state-owned energy company started building a project to increase production from the largest natural gas field in the world through an export terminal on the northeast coast of the Gulf emirate.
Qatar begins construction on gas field: Since President Vladimir Putin declared a full-scale war on Ukraine at the beginning of last year, there has been an increase in demand for Qatari gas as European consumer nations have rushed to replace lost Russian exports.
The emir presided over a flashy ceremony to lay the cornerstone for the North Field development at Ras Laffan, QatarEnergy’s onshore gas processing facility located 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Doha.
The project “fits within our strategy towards strengthening Qatar’s position as a global producer of liquefied natural gas (LNG),” Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Saad al-Kaabi, the Minister of Energy for Qatar, described the project as a “leap towards our country’s leadership in the field of energy.”
Qatar plans to increase production at the field, which stretches beneath the Gulf into Iranian territory, in order to increase its annual LNG output by at least 60% to 126 million tonnes by 2027.
Input of LNG from the expansion is anticipated to begin in 2026.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at the beginning of last year, European nations have shown increased interest in buying Qatari gas, which Qatar has traditionally sold primarily to Asian nations led by China, Japan, and South Korea.
The North Field Expansion, according to Patrick Pouyanne, chairman of France’s TotalEnergies, is a “huge project” that will help meet growing European demand for LNG.
“More supply is required. That is obvious. The market is still unstable, according to Pouyanne. He continued, “This initiative is significant and will provide some relief to this market.
In September of last year, Total and QatarEnergy agreed to a $1.5 billion transaction that gave Total a 9.3 percent ownership in the second phase of the field’s expansion in Qatar, known as North Field South.
“Major International Energy Companies Partnering with Qatar in Expanding the North Field Gas Development”
The massive French energy company invested almost $2 billion for a 25% stake in the first phase of the development, North Field East, and became a partner in June 2022.
Doha struck a 27-year agreement in June to provide the China National Petroleum Corporation with four million tonnes of gas annually. The arrangement is in line with the provisions of the longest-ever contract in the sector, which Sinopec of China signed in 2022.
The US goliaths ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil, as well as British company Shell and Italian company ENI, have also agreed to collaborate on the development.
In addition to the US, Australia, and Russia, Qatar is one of the major LNG producers in the world.
According to Qatar Energy, the North Field contains 10% of the world’s known natural gas reserves.