Qatar Petroleum is planning to invest around $20 billion in the next few years, after the Gulf Arab state quit OPEC unexpectedly this month.
On Sunday, Saad al-Kaabi, who has the energy portfolio of the world’s top liquefied natural gas supplier, said that the company aims to announce foreign partners for their upcoming LNG trains which are required for the ambitious domestic scale-up by mid-2019.
Qatar is among the most influential players when it comes to LNG market due to its high annual production of around 77 million tonnes. It aims at boosting its capacity by 43% till 2024 and will build around four liquefaction trains for the expansion of LNG.
QP is also looking forward at oil and gas, non-conventional and conventional as part of its investment push amounting to $20 billion and more. In Texas, QP majorly owns the Golden Pass LNG terminal along with Conoco Phillips and Exxon holding smaller share. A final decision regarding the investment will be made by Kaabi.
Qatar has a massive gas production and its oil production is relatively smaller. Quitting OPEC was seen as a swipe at Saudi Arabia, the group’s de facto leader. Since June 2017, Qatar has been boycotted economically and politically by Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, UAE and Egypt after accusing Qatar of supporting terrorism.
“NOPEC” (No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels Act), the legislation that is proposed by the U.S. for opening up the OPEC group to anti-trust lawsuits, is also one of the reasons for quitting the oil exporting club.
On Sunday, an announcement was made by Qatar Petroleum regarding its partnership with Italian oil major on three Mexico oil fields. The company is also in talks with the international oil firms regarding the expansion project of LNG. The LNG expansion project will be self financed by QP instead of borrowing as it has done before.
Source: Reuters and US News
