LNG

Qatar Petroleum has issued an invitation to tender for the reservation of ship construction capacity mainly in South Korea for an initial 60 new LNG carriers to transport its volumes from the expansion of its Ras Laffan liquefaction plant in Middle East and its Golden Pass facility in the US Gulf Coast.

Leading LNG exporter Qatar is aiming to secure its position in shale-gas development in Argentina as the Gulf state’s Emir Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani begins a state visit to the South American nation when energy investments will head the agenda.

Sept 27 (LNG) - Qatar Petroleum said its decision first made last year to increase production capacity at the Ras Laffan complex from the current 77 million tonnes per annum would now include a fourth liquefaction Train to take total output to 110 MTPA, an increase of 43 percent. “Qatar Petroleum has embarked on a project to develop additional gas from the North Field and build three new LNG mega-trains. Based on the good results obtained through recent additional appraisal and testing, we have decided to add a fourth LNG mega-train and include it in the ongoing front-end engineering of the project,” said Qatar Petroleum President and Chief Executive, Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi. “When the project is completed and all four new trains are online, Qatar's LNG production capacity will reach 110 MTPA. This will increase Qatar's total production capacity from 4.8 to 6.2 million barrels of oil equivalent per day,” added Al-Kaabi.

Qatar Petroleum said all the contracts for the expansion project at the Ras Laffan complex would be awarded by the end of 2018 while the new 100 million tonnes per annum production target would be met by the end of 2023.

Qatar Petroleum, owner of the world’s largest LNG production complex at Ras Laffan in the Arabian Gulf along with minority partner ExxonMobil Corp., has signed an agreement with the US major to purchase a large stake in its shale assets in the prolific Vaca Muerta play in Argentina.

Unrest in several cities in Iran over the New Year holiday period along with high seasonal LNG demand in China and Japan is likely to lead to higher January LNG and oil prices. while continuing freezing weather in the US Northeast will give pace to front-month US natural gas futures.

Qatar, the world’s largest liquefied natural gas producer, said it would merge its two production companies Qatargas and RasGas Co Ltd, and consolidate all activities under the Qatargas banner.

Qatar Gas Transport Co., known as Nakilat and with over 60 liquefied natural gas vessels in its fleet, posted third-quarter net profits of 749 million Qatari riyals (US$2016 million), down by just over 1 percent compared with last year.