Already the world’s second-largest LNG producer, Qatar is on its way to ramping up its local production with its multi-billion North Field expansion project.
QatarEnergy has announced a new expansion project, North Field West, for its liquified natural gas on Sunday, set to boost the local production to 142 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) before the end of 2030.
Qatar’s Minister of State for Energy Affairs Saad Al-Kaabi made the major announcement at a press conference in Doha.
Al-Kaabi, also QatarEnergy’s president and CEO, added that the expansion comes after drilling and testing confirmed the ability to further expand LNG production in Ras Laffan. The latest expansion would represent an almost 85% increase in production in comparison to the current 77 mtpa.
“QatarEnergy has focused its efforts and attention on determining how far west the North Field’s productive layers extend in order to evaluate the production potential from those areas,” Al-Kaabi said.
The Qatari energy official also announced the discovery of additional gas quantities in the North Field, estimated at 240 cubic feet. The discovery would raise Qatar’s gas reserves from 1,760 cubic feet to more than 2,000 trillion cubic feet.
“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,” Al-Kaabi said.
Already the world’s second-largest LNG producer, Qatar is on its way to ramping up its local production with its multi-billion North Field expansion project.
Initially split into two parts, the North Field East (NFE) and the North Field South (NFS) were set to ramp up production from 77 mtpa to 126 mtpa by 2026.
Overall, the project aims to boost Qatar’s LNG production by more than 63 percent while adding 48 mtpa to global production.
QatarEnergy had inked eight partnership deals with key energy giants globally throughout 2022-2023 for the project, namely TotalEnergies, Eni, ConocoPhillips, Shell, and ExxonMobil.
Qatar’s Al-Kaabi had said last November that the Gulf state will provide a substantial 40 percent of all new LNG supplies by 2029.
