Qatar Announces Another Major LNG Expansion Project

QatarEnergy, the state company of one of the world’s biggest LNG exporters, is adding another major LNG expansion project to its two ongoing projects, aiming to raise its total LNG export capacity by 85% from current levels by 2030.

QatarEnergy said on Sunday it is proceeding with a new LNG expansion project, the North Field West project, after drilling appraisal wells at the world’s largest natural gas field, the North Field it shares with Iran, and finding “huge additional gas quantities” in the field.

The North Field West project adds to the ongoing North Field East (NFE) and North Field South (NFS) expansion projects, with the three field developments expected to boost Qatar’s LNG production capacity to 142 million tons per annum (MTPA) before the end of this decade, representing an increase of nearly 85% from current production levels of 77 MTPA.

Commenting on the appraisal drilling and the new export project, QatarEnergy’s chief executive Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi said in a statement,

“These are very important results of great dimensions that will take Qatar’s gas industry to new horizons, as they will enable us to begin developing a new LNG project from the North Field’s western sector with a production capacity of about 16 MTPA.”

QatarEnergy will immediately commence the basic engineering works necessary to ensure that the planned progress is achieved according to the approved schedule for the North Field West project, the company said. 

At the end of last year, Al-Kaabi told Reuters that QatarEnergy is assessing further LNG export expansion beyond the already announced huge North Field developments—the biggest LNG expansion project in the world currently underway. 

“If we think there is more capacity, we'll probably do more,” the executive told Reuters.  

Last year, Al-Kaabi said that “40% of all the new LNG that will come to the market by 2029, when all our projects are up and running, is going to be from QatarEnergy.”

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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