State-owned LNG giant QatarEnergy has entered into a 27-year deal to supply LNG to China’s state-owned energy giant CNPC.
The signing of the long-term sales and purchase agreement took place at QatarEnergy’s headquarters in Doha on Tuesday.
Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, Qatar’s energy minister and CEO of QatarEnergy, and CNPC’s chairman Dai Houliang signed the deal.
Under the SPA, QatarEnergy will deliver about 4 million mt of LNG per year from the North Field East LNG project to CNPC’s receiving terminals in China, marking the industry’s longest term SPA commitment, it said in a statement.
Stake sale
Besides the supply deal, CNPC will also take a stake in the NFE project.
QatarEnergy will transfer to CNPC a 5 percent interest in the equivalent of one NFE train with a capacity of 8 mtpa.
The project will have in total four large trains so CNPC will take 1.25 percent of the total project.
This transfer will not affect the participating interests of any of the other shareholders in the project, QatarEnergy said.
Deals with Sinopec and Petrobangla
This new contract with CNPC follows a 27-year deal QatarEnergy signed with China’s state-controlled energy giant Sinopec in November last year.
This deal includes the supply of 4 million mt and is the first supply deal QatarEnergy announced for the NFE project.
Sinopec also agreed to buy a stake in the NFE project, the same as CNPC.
QatarEnergy also recently signed a 15-year deal to supply LNG to Bangladesh’s state-owned Petrobangla.
Previously, UK-based Shell, France’s TotalEnergies, Italy’s Eni, and US firms ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil took stakes in the $28.75 billion NFE project which will boost Qatar’s LNG export capacity by 32 mtpa.
ConocoPhilips, Shell, as well as TotalEnergies took stakes in the smaller NFS project with a capacity of 16 mtpa.
Boosting Qatar’s production to 126 mtpa
Together, NFE and NFS form the wider North Field Expansion project to increase LNG production from the North Field, adding about 48 mtpa to Qatar’s export capacity and bringing it to 126 mtpa.
QatarEnergy’s unit Qatargas currently has an LNG production capacity of about 77 mtpa in the giant Ras Laffan complex.
(Updated with a statement by QatarEnergy.)
