Despite pressure from neighbors Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates, Qatar is gearing for further investment in the development of new gas projects.
Qatar’s energy minister Mohammed al-Sada said that global majors are lining up to back Qatar’s push to expand its LNG production capacity to 100 million tons per year, from 77 million currently.
Speaking to Reuters, al-Sada noted that the interest shown by global majors came as a surprise and besides Qatar’s partners ExxonMobil, Shell and Total new names have expressed interest.
As a result of the pressure from Saudi Arabia and UAE, Qatar turned towards expanding its LNG export capacity instead of piping gas to the two neighbors.
Liquefied natural gas enables the world’s largest producer to reach any market and the merger of its two LNG producers Qatargas and RasGas will allow it to cut costs and increase competitiveness.
Investment in natural gas is not the only investment target as Qatar is interested in tight or shale oil. However, exports of LNG from the United States are a target as the company is looking to repurpose the Golden Pass LNG import terminal into an export facility.
Commenting on the gas glut al-Sada noted that despite increasing exports from the United States and Russia the supply surplus could last the next four or five years, but the rise in demand could tighten the market again beyond 2024-2025, which is why the country made the decision to expand its LNG production capacity now.
LNG World News Staff