DMEA: Qatar bucks trend with $29bn LNG expansion

LNG frontrunner Qatar has signed off on a $29bn expansion of its liquefaction capacity, at a time when most other suppliers are holding back on new investments.

State-owned Qatar Petroleum (QP) took a final investment decision (FID) on February 8 on North Field East (NFE), which will expand Qatar’s LNG production capacity from 77mn to 110mn tonnes per year (tpy). First gas is expected in late 2025 and the development should reach full capacity in 2027. According to Wood Mackenzie, it is the largest single LNG project ever sanctioned, and will likely be the biggest upstream investment that is approved this year.

QP has also awarded the main engineering contract for NFE to Japan’s Chiyoda and France’s Technip, after a selection process that ran for over a year. The contract’s scope covers the construction of four 8mn tpy LNG trains, with associated facilities for gas treatment, NGL recovery and helium extraction and refining.

Meanwhile, the African Coalition for Trade and Investment in Natural Gas (ACTING) estimated in a report on February 9 that sub-Saharan Africa could provide an extra 74mn tpy of LNG export capacity by 2030 if the market conditions are right. This supply would be in addition to the 60mn tpy of export capacity that the region is expected to have up and running by 2035, ACTING said. Sub-Saharan Africa can also expand its gas consumption, primarily through gas-to-power projects, it added.

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