LNG

QatarEnergy, the leading global LNG producer and with three growth projects being developed has signed time-charter party (TCP) agreements with Qatar Gas Transport Co. (Nakilat) for the operation of 25 conventional-size LNG vessels as part of the second shipowner tender under Qatar’s LNG fleet expansion programme.

The agreements were signed in Doha by Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, the Minister of State for Energy Affairs and President and Chief Executive of QatarEnergy and Abdullah Al-Sulaiti, the CEO of Nakilat.

A statement said that 17 of the 25 LNG vessels are being constructed at the Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) shipyard in South Korea, while the remaining eight are being constructed at Hanwha Ocean, formerly Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering, also in South Korea.

“These agreements firm up last month’s selection of Nakilat as the owner and operator of up to 25 conventional-size LNG carriers, underscoring our continued confidence in Qatar’s flagship LNG shipping and maritime company,” said Al-Kaabi.

“This is a testament to Nakilat’s world-class capabilities as well as to the significant contributions of Qatari listed companies to our country’s national economy,” he explained.

“The agreements we signed today play an important role in implementing QatarEnergy’s historic LNG shipping programme, which will cater for our future requirements, as we move forward with the expansion of our LNG production capacity to 142 million tonnes per annum by 2030,” Al-Kaabi stated.

Each of the 25 vessels will have a capacity of 174,000 cubic metres and will be chartered out by Nakilat to affiliates of QatarEnergy pursuant to the 15-year TCP agreements.

Liquefaction surge

Qatar announced at the end of February 2024 that it was going ahead with a third huge expansion called the North Field West (NFW) project to take overall output to 142 MTPA by the end of the decade.

The NFW joint venture will add to production expansions already under way with the North Field East (NFE) and North Field South (NFS) LNG projects.

The current NFE ramp-up of QatarEnergy’s liquefaction capacity will take production from 77 MTPA to 110 MTPA by 2027.

The second phase, called the NFS venture, will further increase the LNG output capacity from 110 MTPA to 126 MTPA.

The new NFW project will be developed to take production to 142 MTPA.

Overall the three expansions will put into production a total of eight LNG mega-Trains, each with nameplate capacity of around 8 MTPA and total additional nameplate capacity of just over 64 MTPA.

The US finished 2023 at the top of the liquefied natural gas exports league as shipments to Europe were ramped up to replace Russian volumes while Australia finished second because of maintenance, strikes and regulatory obstructions for future ventures and Qatar was in third place ahead of its massive expansion plans.

QatarEnergy has signed a second partnership and supply agreement with China Petroleum and Chemicals Corp. (Sinopec) for Qatar’s North Field South (NFS) expansion project in the Arabian Gulf after Sinopec had previously taken a stake in the other Qatar expansion, the North Field East (NFE) joint venture.

Technip Energies, the leading liquefied natural gas engineering company, reported reduced first-half profits and revenues as the full withdrawal from the Arctic LNG II project in the Gydan Peninsula of Russia was completed amid the gain of a lucrative contract for the LNG expansion in Qatar and with a new record backlog of contracts.

Winterthur Gas & Diesel (WinGD), headquartered in Switzerland, said WinGD’s latest generation of X72DF-2.1 engines will power 25 vessels as part of the QatarEnergy’s North Field East (NFE) project, the biggest LNG carrier newbuilding project in history.

Italian energy company Eni reported group adjusted second quarter 2022 EBIT of €5.84 bill, up 13% quarter-on-quarter and more than doubling the year-on-year figures.

US major ConocoPhillips become the third international company to be awarded a stake in QatarEnergy’s North Field East (NFE) liquefied natural gas expansion project aimed at putting Qatar back in the No. 1 spot for global exporters.

QatarEnergy still holds a majority stake in the $28.75 billion NFE expansion joint venture after earlier awarded similar stakes to French major TotalEnergies and Italy’s Eni.

The NFE expansion is scheduled to come on stream by early 2022 using abundant feed gas from the North field in the Arabian Gulf and boosting Qatar’s LNG production capacity to 110 million tonnes per annum from the existing 77 MTPA.

Ryan Lance, the Chairman and Chief Executive of ConocoPhillips, signed the partnership agreement during a ceremony held at QatarEnergy’s headquarters in Doha in the presence of senior executives from both companies.

ConocoPhillips has similar terms to its French and Italian counterparts and has a 25 percent interest in a new joint venture with QatarEnergy owning 75 percent.

The Qatar-ConocoPhillips joint venture will hold a 12.5 percent stake in the 32 MTPA NFE development.

The upstream part of the project is already under way to develop the southeast area of the North Field via eight platforms, 80 wells and gas pipelines to the onshore liquefaction plant.

Experience

“We sign a new partnership agreement that will further enhance our relationship and enable us to benefit from the wide experience of ConocoPhillips in the development of the world’s largest LNG expansion project,” said Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, the Minister of State for Energy Affairs for Qatar as well as President and CEO of QatarEnergy.

“Our work together will enable us to meet our target of increasing the State of Qatar’s LNG production capacity,” he added.

“Our collaboration will help produce cleaner energy to meet growing global demand and achieve a realistic energy transition towards achieving our climate change objectives thanks to the project’s industry-leading environmental attributes, including carbon capture and sequestration and other technologies deployed in this project,” explained Al-Kaabi.

In his remarks during the ceremony, ConocoPhillips CEO Lance said the US major was delighted to build on its long history of partnering with Qatar and to participate in this next phase of development of Qatar's North Field.

“We recognize that LNG plays an increasingly important role in energy security and the global energy transition,” stated Lance.

QatarEnergy said more partners are scheduled to join the NFE expansion project and relevant announcements would be made soon.

Qatar’s long-term main energy partner, ExxonMobil, is expected to be a another of the shareholders amid media speculation that a Chinese oil and gas major may also be accorded a Gulf LNG stake for the first time.

May 7 (LNGJ) - Chiyoda Corp, the leading Japanese energy and LNG engineering company involved in projects worldwide, reported sales of 315.39 billion yen ($2.88Bln) in the fiscal year to the end of March 2021, a fall of 18.3 percent on the previous year. However, Chiyoda pointed out that it expected improvements in the coming year as it executed LNG engineering, procurement and construction projects in Qatar, the US and Nigeria.

   “In Qatar, Chiyoda has won the order for the EPC phase of the North Field East LNG project, which is the expansion of four LNG Trains with capacity of 8 million metric tons per annum,” said the company. “In the US, the Golden Pass LNG project is in the EPC phase and in the Nigeria LNG project Chiyoda is providing review and other technical support to our partner, which is performing the engineering,” it added. “In Japan, EPC phase work is currently underway to reinforce, modify, and repair existing LNG terminals that were built by Chiyoda, and to newly install and add earthquake and tsunami reinforcement to gas supply facilities for thermal power plants,” stated the company.