State-owned LNG giant QatarEnergy said on Sunday it will further boost its liquefied natural gas production from the North Field.
Qatar’s energy minister and chief executive of QatarEnergy, Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, made the announcement during a press conference held at QatarEnergy’s headquarters in Doha.
The new project, called the North Field West project, will add 16 million tonnes of LNG to the overall expansion of the North Field to a total of 142 mtpa before the end of 2030.
Al-Kaabi said that extensive appraisal drilling and testing have confirmed that productive layers of Qatar’s giant North Field extend towards the west, which allows for developing a new LNG production project in Ras Laffan.
According to Al-Kaabi, this represents an increase of almost 85 percent from current production levels.
“Huge” additional gas quantities
Al-Kaabi said that QatarEnergy has focused its efforts and attention on determining how far west the North Field’s productive layers extend in order to evaluate the production potential from those areas.
“We have continued geological and engineering studies and have drilled a number of appraisal wells in that area. I am pleased today to announce that these great efforts have confirmed, through technical tests of the appraisal wells, the extension of the North Field’s productive layers further towards the west, which means the ability to produce significant additional quantities of gas from this new sector,” he said
Al-Kaabi also announced the presence of “huge” additional gas quantities in the North Field estimated at 240 trillion cubic feet, which raises Qatar’s gas reserves from 1,760 to more than 2,000 trillion cubic feet, and the condensates reserves from 70 to more than 80 billion barrels, in addition to large quantities of liquefied petroleum gas, ethane, and helium.
“These are very important results of great dimensions that will take Qatar’s gas industry to new horizons, as they will enable us to begin developing a new LNG project from the North Field’s western sector with a production capacity of about 16 mtpa,” he said.
He said that QatarEnergy would immediately start the basic engineering works necessary to ensure that the planned progress is achieved according to the approved schedule for this new project.
LNG expansion
QatarEnergy is currently building the North Field East and North Field South expansion projects.
The LNG giant officially started construction on its North Field expansion project in the giant Ras Laffan complex in October last year.
QatarEnergy’s partners in the project are Shell, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, TotalEnergies, Eni, Sinopec, and CNPC.
The project includes six mega trains, each with a production capacity of 8 mtpa of LNG, four of which are part of the North Field East expansion project, and two are part of the North Field South expansion project.
Technip and Chiyoda won the EPC award for the North Field East project, while QatarEnergy awarded the contract for the North Field South project to a joint venture of Technip Energies and Consolidated Contractors Company.
QatarEnergy LNG, previously known as Qatargas, currently operates 14 LNG production trains with a capacity of about 77 mtpa in Ras Laffan.
This year, QatarEnergy signed LNG supply deals with India’s Petronet LNG and US FSRU player Excelerate Energy.
Prior to these deals, QatarEnergy signed huge contracts in 2023.
These large deals include 27-year SPAs with Sinopec, Eni, Shell, and TotalEnergies.