France’s TotalEnergies said it had secured a stake in QatarEnergy’s North Field South (NFS) expansion project which will boost Qatar’s LNG export capacity by 16 million tons per annum.
In June, TotalEnergies took a 6.25 percent stake in the $28.75 billion North Field East (NFE) expansion project, the first and larger phase of QatarEnergy’s giant LNG expansion.
QatarEnergy has now selected the French firm as the first partner for the NFS project, the second phase of the expansion.
Under the new deal signed on Saturday, TotalEnergies will have a 9.375 percent participating interest in the NFS project – out of a total 25 percent interest available for international partners – while QatarEnergy will hold the remaining 75 percent.
Through its combined participating interests in NFE and NFS, TotalEnergies would add 3.5 mtpa of LNG production to its growing worldwide portfolio by 2028, in line with the company’s objective to increase the share of natural gas in its sales mix to 50 percent by 2030, it said in a statement.
Boosting production to 126 mtpa
Together, 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.
The upstream part of the project will develop the southern area of the North Field with five platforms, 50 wells and gas pipelines to the onshore processing plant.
Downstream, there will be two 8 mtpa liquefaction trains. NFS would benefit from significant synergies with NFE, making it one of the most cost-competitive LNG projects worldwide, according to TotalEnergies.
Just like NFE, NFS would apply the “highest standards to reduce its GHG emissions intensity,” TotalEnergies said.
Native CO2 from natural gas production will be captured and sequestered.
Moreover, the plant will be connected to Qatar’s electrical grid, which will supply it with a growing portion of renewable electricity thanks to the 800 MW Al Kharsaah solar power plant project, in which TotalEnergies is a partner, and QatarEnergy’s new solar power plant currently under construction in Ras Laffan with TotalEnergies’ support.
Supporting Europe’s energy security
At the signing ceremony, Patrick Pouyanne, chairman and CEO of TotalEnergies, said, “Qatar’s ambitious leadership in further developing its natural gas resources through this expansion project, which ranks among the world’s most competitive in terms of costs and low emissions, will make a major contribution to increasing LNG supply in the years to come.”
“We consider Qatar as a long-term strategic country for TotalEnergies and this latest addition to our portfolio marks an important step toward our low-carbon LNG growth objectives, a key pillar of TotalEnergies’ transformation into a sustainable multi-energy company,” he said.
“It will also further strengthen our ability, together with Qatar, to support Europe’s energy security,” Pouyanne said.
QatarEnergy to announce other NFS partners
QatarEnergy said in separate statement that it would announce other partners in the NFS project “in due course”.
Besides TotalEnergies, QatarEnergy previously selected Italy’s Eni, US firms ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil, and UK-based Shell to join the NFE project.
Qatar’s energy minister and chief executive of QatarEnergy, Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, said during the signing ceremony that “QatarEnergy is moving forward, to help meet growing global demand for cleaner energy, of which LNG is the backbone for a serious and realistic energy transition.”
“We are committing significant investments to lower the carbon intensity of our energy products, which constitutes a key pillar of QatarEnergy’s sustainability and energy transition strategy,” he said.