QatarEnergy sets sights on becoming largest LNG company within ten years

Qatar’s state-owned oil and gas company QatarEnergy has set its sights on becoming the largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) traders in the world within five to ten years.

Minister of State for Energy Affairs, the president and CEO of QatarEnergy Saad bin Sherida Al Kaabi underlined this in his speech at the London Energy Intelligence forum which is currently taking place in London.

Al Kaabi explained that QatarEnergy is selling about five to ten million tons of LNG, adding that the company will become the world’s largest LNG trader over the next five to ten years, Qatar News Agency reports.

He further stated that huge quantities of Qatar’s gas production will be sent to Europe in the coming period, noting that QatarEnergy has adopted a successful partnership model that put it in its current position and proved that it can do this task alone. QatarEnergy does its business on a fully commercial basis and is no longer a governmental company, Al Kaabi explained.

According to QatarEnergy’s CEO, energy prices in general are expected to remain high in the foreseeable future, without reaching their peak soon, not even in the next 20-30 years.

Al Kaabi attributed the reason for the energy crisis in Europe to the goals that it set for itself by reducing net carbon emissions in it to zero, as well as adopting the idea that renewable energy sources can replace natural gas, noting that this is the reason why Europeans pay unreasonable prices for energy, adding that gas is not a transitional fuel, but a final destination, according to the Qatari news agency.

Saad bin Sherida Al Kaabi also received the 2022 “Energy Executive of the Year” award, which was presented to him by Energy Intelligence.

QatarEnergy is progressing with the development of its LNG projects and it recently selected French energy major TotalEnergies as the first international partner in the North Field South (NFS) LNG project.

Together, North Field East (NFE) and NFS form the wider North Field Expansion project to increase LNG production from the North Field, adding 48 Mtpa to Qatar’s export capacity and bringing it to 126 Mtpa by 2028.