Qatar Energy partners with Total Energies for LNG expansion amid war

State-owned oil and gas company Qatar Energy signed on Saturday a deal with Total Energies for the Northfield South Expansion.

The partnership deal was signed by Saad Sherida al-Kaabi, Qatar's Energy Minister and Patrick Pouyanne, Total Energies chief Executive, and took place in Doha, Qatar.

The deal comes at a time when Europe is searching for alternative sources of energy away from Russia.

The Northfield expansion project is made up of two distinct parts, namely the Northfield East or NFE project, which will increase the state of Qatar's LNG production capacity from 77 to 110 million tons per annum, and Northfield South or NFS project, which will further increase Qatar's liquefied natural gas or LNG production capacity from 110 to 126 million tonnes per annum.

Al Kaabi said Total Energies will have an effective net participation interest of 9.375 per cent in the NFS project, out of a total of 25 per cent available for international partner participation, while Qatar Energy will retain 75 per cent interest. Other partners in this project will be announced in due course.

NFS is the world's largest LNG development, and according to Al Kaabi enjoys the advanced environmental characteristics, including significant carbon capture and sequestration technologies and capacity.

In June and July of this year, Qatar Energy and Total Energies made five separate partnership announcements for the NFE project that will cost around USD 29 billion to construct.

Qatar is among the world's top liquefied natural gas exporters and its state-owned company operates all of the country's oil and gas exploration and production, making the peninsula-nation among the world's richest per capita. The tiny country, which borders Saudi Arabia to the east, shares control with Iran of the world's largest underwater natural gas field in the Persian Gulf.