The Gulf state is on its way to dominate LNG production with the North Field Expansion Project, the largest of its kind in the industry.
The United States topped the world’s liquified natural gas exports in 2023 for the first time, with 91.2 million metric tonnes of the gas exported during the year, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday based on its data collection.
The U.S. climb in the LNG industry last year made it overtake leading suppliers Qatar— which was 2022’s leading supplier — and Australia.
Doha’s volumes saw a 1.9% drop for the first time since at least 2016, making it the third top supplier after Canberra and Washington.
The milestone came after the U.S. restarted the Freeport LNG in Texas following the June 2022 fire, Bloomberg explained.
Alex Munton, director of global gas and LNG research at consulting firm Rapidan Energy Group, separately told Reuters on Tuesday that the return of Freeport LNG’s services added six million tonnes to the U.S. production.
“The full-year output of Venture Global LNG’s Calcasieu Pass facility added 3 MT [million tonnes] more than in 2022,” Munton added.
The U.S. production would likely go up by an additional 38 mtpa (million tonnes per annum) after the beginning of production from Venture Global LNG Inc.’s Plaquemines in addition to the Golden Pass in Texas, according to Reuters.
The facility in Texas is a joint venture between QatarEnergy and Exxon Mobil Corp. and QatarEnergy. The two projects would add another 38 million tonnes of LNG a year from the U.S.
Golden Pass LNG has a production capacity of at least 18 million tonnes per annum and is set to begin its first production by the end of 2024.
In October 2022, QatarEnergy Trading and ExxonMobil signed an agreement stipulating the former would “independently offtake and market their respective proportionate equity shares” of LNG in the U.S. project.
In 2016, affiliates of QatarEnergy and ExxonMobil established a joint venture Ocean LNG Limited to offtake and market the production at the Texas gas entity.
The Gulf state is on its way to dominate LNG production with the North Field Expansion Project, the largest of its kind in the industry.
The multibillion project comes under Qatar’s LNG endeavours and is split into two parts; the North Field East (NFE) and the North Field South (NFS).
NFE is set to ramp up Qatar’s LNG production from 77 to 110 mtpa by 2025, as the NFS will increase the production capacity from 110 to 126 mtpa by 2026.
Overall, the project is set to boost Qatar’s LNG production by more than 63% while adding 48 mtpa to the global production.
Several European countries had signed long-term LNG agreements with Qatar throughout October 2023, including Italy, the Netherlands, and France.
Qatar’s Minister of State for Energy Affairs Saad Al-Kaabi had said in November that the Gulf state will provide a substantial 40% of all new LNG supplies by 2029.
Al-Kaabi’s remarks came during the Sinopec Forum in Shanghai, where he finalised a 27-year agreement to supply natural gas to China’s Sinopec. The agreement is the second of its kind between the Qatari and Chinese companies following a similar one signed in April 2023.
