Following on from the recent signing by Qatar of a declaration of intent on energy cooperation with Germany aimed at becoming its key supplier of liquefied natural gas (LNG) going forward, the Emirate has now signed separate partnership deals with France’s TotalEnergies and Italy’s Eni for the US$30 billion North Field (or ‘Dome’) Expansion of the world’s biggest LNG project.
According to statements from Qatar’s Energy Minister, Saad al-Kaabi, the French oil and gas supermajor will have a 25 percent stake in the project, with no other company to have a higher stake and the selection process for partners now finalised. The same terms have been announced the Eni partnership deal.
this looks like an eminently achievable objective, given that the supergiant North Field natural gas field, together with the neighbouring 3,700 square kilometre area of Iran’s South Pars field, comprises by far the largest non-associated natural gas field in the world.
By conservatives estimates the entire 9,700 square kilometre site holds at least 1,800 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of non-associated natural gas and at least 50 billion barrels of natural gas condensates. This abundant resource had allowed Qatar for many years to be the number one LNG exporter in the world.
That TotalEnergies and Eni were the first two international oil companies chosen for key roles in this key project may not just be a reflection of their undoubted capabilities as oil and gas operations, but may also reflect the onus that Qatar is placing on positioning itself as the ‘go-to’ emergency gas supplier for Europe, given the energy supply constraints that are likely to arise from its intended ban on Russian energy this year.
In the shorter-term, the plan is that new LNG supplies from Qatar would come into Germany through existing importation routes augmented by new infrastructure approved by the German Bundestag on 19 May. This includes the deployment of four floating LNG import facilities on its northern coast, and two permanent onshore terminals, which are currently under development, according to the E.U. energy source
source of the news:oilprice.com