Page 6 - MEOG Week 24 2021

MEOG COMMENTARY MEOG

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.

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

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 24 16•June•2021