Partnership to expand the North Field.. How did Qatar maintain its position on the throne of liquefied gas globally?

Doha – Qatar Energy Company

announced the selection of the Italian company ENI as its partner in the North East Field Expansion Project, the largest single project in the history of the liquefied natural gas industry, as part of Qatar’s plans to maintain its leadership in LNG.

These are plans that have been around for decades.

This is the second partnership announcement in the giant project, which costs 28.75 billion dollars, and consists of 4 production lines, which will raise Qatar's production capacity of liquefied natural gas from 77 million tons per year to 110 million tons per year in 2025.

Under the agreement, Qatar Energy and Eni will become partners in a joint venture company in which Qatar Energy will own a 75% stake, while Eni will own the remaining 25%.

The joint venture company will own 12.5% ​​of the Northeast Field Expansion Project, which has a total production capacity of its four production lines of 32 million tons per year of LNG.

The partnership is the first for Eni in the exploration and exploration sector in Qatar (Al Jazeera)

It is noteworthy that this is Eni's first participation in the exploration and exploration sector in the State of Qatar, and more partners are scheduled to join the North East Field Expansion Project, where the final terms have been agreed upon, and the other partners will be announced soon.

And last Sunday, "Qatar Energy" and "Total Energies" signed a partnership agreement to expand the Northeast Field.

More partners are scheduled to join the expansion project.

Meet the global demand for liquefied gas

The tracker of the production of liquefied natural gas in Qatar since its discovery until now sees that the Gulf state has sought to benefit from its production capabilities in order to meet the increasing global demand for liquefied natural gas, and to occupy the leadership in safe and stable supplies.

Natural gas is the main source of the economy of the State of Qatar, which has the third largest natural gas reserves in the world, amounting to 24.7 trillion cubic meters, after Russia and Iran, while the United States comes in fifth place with 12.6 trillion cubic meters.

Natural gas was discovered in Qatar in 1971 on the northeastern coast of the country, in the North Field, which covers an area of ​​more than 6,000 square kilometers, according to the Qatargas website, which was founded in 1984.

The North Field is one of the largest non-associated natural gas fields in the world (Al-Jazeera)

first agreement

Qatar's North Field is one of the largest non-associated natural gas fields in the world, containing 900 trillion cubic feet of gas (25.5 trillion cubic metres), or about 10% of the global total.​

​With the increasing importance of gas in local industries, the State of Qatar began, at the end of the seventies and early eighties, to obtain gas from the Dukhan oil region, and then the demand for natural gas gradually increased after that period.

In order to meet this increasing demand, especially after the expansion of the petrochemical industries with the establishment of the Qatar Petrochemical Company (QAPCO), Qatar Petroleum Company (currently Qatar Energy) saw the need to meet the increasing demand of the local petrochemical industries from the giant North Gas Field, so it began to develop the stage The first from this field in 1987.

Qatar Petroleum embarked on constructing the facilities of the first phase, which were fully operational in 1991 to meet the increasing domestic, industrial and domestic consumption from the North Gas Field by extracting quantities of gas amounting to 800 million cubic feet per day.

The Minister of State for Energy Affairs announces:

– The discovery of an extension to the North Field on land

– Qatar’s production will reach 6.7 million barrels equivalent per day in 2027

– LNG production will increase from 77 to 126 million tons per year “a 64% increase”

– The field contains 1,760 Trillion cubic feet of gas

up up go up up up 🇶🇦 pic.twitter.com/jluodwf6iU

- Khalifa bin Hamad (@KHK) November 25, 2019

In 1992, Doha signed its first LNG sale and purchase agreement with Chubu Electric to deliver 4 million tons of LNG annually, and Qatar delivered the first shipment of LNG to Chubu Electric in January. January 1997.

The country has been treating liquefied natural gas through several production lines, since 1984. The production lines included the "Qatargas 1" project, which was established in 1984, and it consists of 3 lines that produce about 10 million tons of liquefied gas annually after the expansion of the project in 2005.

gas industry facilities

The "Qatargas 2" project, which entered into force in 2009, included two giant pipelines with a production capacity of approximately 7.8 million tons of liquefied natural gas annually, 850,000 tons of liquefied petroleum gas annually, and 90,000 barrels of condensate per day for each line.

It also includes 14 tankers and the largest LNG receiving terminal in Europe, the South Hook LNG terminal in Wales, in addition to containing 30 offshore wells, 3 offshore injection wells to drain surplus water, and 3 offshore platforms in the Qatari North Field that produce 2.9 billion cubic feet of gas per day.

Qatar also established the "Qatargas 3" project, a giant liquefied gas pipeline with a production capacity of about 7.8 million tons per year, and production from it began in November 2010.

Qatar Petroleum signs the largest contracts of its kind in the history of the LNG tanker industry to build more than 100 new ships valued at more than 70 billion Qatari riyals to meet the needs of plans to expand the production of LNG

⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ #Qatar #QatarPetroleum #Korea https://t.co/4TMJkv6ykt pic.twitter.com/MRdp34UbzO

— QatarEnergy (@qatar_energy) June 1, 2020

Qatar transports the quantities of natural gas produced by the "Qatargas 3" pipeline - amounting to 1.4 billion cubic feet per day - on a fleet of 10 tankers, each with a capacity of 210,000 to 226,000 cubic metres.

The country completed the expansion of LNG production through the Qatargas 4 project, a pipeline with a production capacity of 7.8 million tons annually, equivalent to 1.4 billion cubic feet per day, which entered into force in January 2011.

Huge reserves

The proven gas reserves in Qatar amount to about 871.1 trillion cubic feet of gas (24.7 trillion cubic meters) by the end of 2020, which represents about 13.1% of the world's total reserves of natural gas, according to information provided by the British Oil Company "BP" (BP). .

In order to complete all facilities related to the liquefied gas industry and trade with the world, the Qatari company has equipped a huge fleet of modern and giant gas tankers, the largest in the world. The total global capacity of LNG vessels, which gives them flexibility to meet global market supplies and reduce transportation costs.

Western reports also indicated that Doha submitted a request to build up to 100 ships, which will be allocated later to transport Doha's liquefied gas products to various capitals of the world.

In 2010, the State of Qatar achieved one of its long-term goals;

This is to reach the national production capacity of 77 million tons of liquefied natural gas annually, which represents a third of the expected global market.

Last October, Qatar Energy Company announced a project to build 4 new giant LNG production lines in the North Gas Field.

Qatar has launched several lines to significantly increase production (Qatari Press)

permanent control

These efforts contributed to Qatar's leadership in 2021 in the list of major suppliers for the fifth year in a row, equivalent to 22% of the world's trade in liquefied natural gas.

In 2021, Qatar's exports of liquefied natural gas reached 25 destinations around the world, of which about 54.2 million tons were for the Asian market, or 67.6%, and the European market, with about 16.4 million tons, or 20.5%.

Last year, South Korea topped the destinations for Qatari gas with a total of 10.8 million tons, then India with 10.1 million tons. Qatar's liquefied gas exports to China are expected to jump from 8.5 million tons last year to 13.5 million tons this year;

This is in accordance with 3 agreements signed by Qatar Energy with Chinese companies in 2021.

Last April, Qatari exports of liquefied natural gas recorded a record high, exceeding 107% in value, and amounting to 43.5 billion riyals (11.9 billion dollars), compared to 21 billion riyals a year ago. India topped the list of Qatari gas importers by more than 886 thousand tons, followed by Pakistan with 599 thousand, South Korea with 526 thousand, the United Kingdom with 408.6 thousand, China with 390 thousand, and Italy with 341 thousand.

It is expected that Qatar Energy Company will announce plans to expand the second phase this year, which will raise the capacity of LNG by 2027 to 126 million tons annually, which is enough to meet the total import needs of Japan and South Korea, the two largest and third largest LNG importers in the world on arrangement.