Page 4 - GLNG Week 24 2021

GLNG COMMENTARY GLNG

IOCs reportedly bid to participate

in Qatar’s LNG expansion

Six leading IOCs have reportedly submitted bids to participate in Qatar’s giant gas

expansion project

PROJECTS & SIX leading international oil companies (IOCs) has a critical role to play as a transition fuel – and
COMPANIES have reportedly submitted bids to participate in a destination fuel – in a decarbonising world.
Qatar’s giant LNG expansion project as Doha And state-owned Qatar Petroleum (QP) has
WHAT: seeks to ramp up output from its 386bn barrels sought to position its LNG expansion as being
Six of the world’s leading of oil equivalent (boe) gas reserves. aligned with the energy transition.
oil and gas companies Citing industry sources familiar with the mat- The company has been talking up its commit-
have reportedly bid for ter, Reuters reported that the companies had ment to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emis-
participation in Qatar’s submitted bids for participation in the $28.75bn sions from its operations and is planning to add
LNG expansion. North Field East (NFE) expansion project on a carbon capture and storage (CCS) component
May 24. The bidders are reported to include at the NFE project.
WHY: ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, TotalEnergies
Qatar can go it alone to and ConocoPhillips – which are already part- Changing needs
develop the project but ners in Qatar’s existing LNG operations – and This comes after QP took a final investment deci-
is thought to be seeking new entrants Chevron and Eni. sion (FID) on NFE alone earlier this year. The
partners to help market An Eni spokesperson confirmed to Reuters company had previously relied on IOCs’ exper-
its gas. that the company is participating in the bidding tise – as well as their investments – to develop
process, though the other firms mentioned have its initial liquefaction capacity but now has the
WHAT NEXT: not commented on the matter. expertise to go it alone. However, having part-
The results of the tender The NFE project is set to raise Qatar’s lique- ners to market the LNG volumes produced is
are not expected before faction capacity from 79mn tonnes per year thought to be the main driver behind Doha’s
September. currently to 110mn tpy by 2026. It is the world’s attempt to bring in other participants now.
single largest LNG project. “I don’t think QP needs the IOCs’ expertise
The news illustrates that interest in develop- in the upstream or midstream construction of
ing major oil and gas projects remains, even as the project but they will be glad to see someone
many IOCs – and indeed some state-owned take some LNG volumes off their hands,” a sen-
companies – step up efforts to decarbonise. ior source at one of the bidding companies told
Indeed, LNG players maintain that natural gas Reuters.

Qatar’s LNG
capacity expansion
is underpinned by
the North Field East
project.

P4 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 24 18•June•2021