LNG Output Capacity Significantly Growing in Qatar

Qatar is significantly expanding its volume of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) production capacity which is an important achievement towards ensuring more gas supplies to meet the increasing global demand.

In a webinar held yesterday entitled ‘Mena Oil & Gas Projects Market 2025-26’ hosted by MEED, Middle East and Africa’s leading source of business intelligence discussed Mena oil, gas and petrochemicals projects market and description of the main megaprojects, including project programmes. It delivered analysis of active contracts and spending to date, analysis of top contracts by work already awarded, long-term capital expenditure outlays and forecasts.

It also highlighted key contracts to be tendered and awarded over the next 18 months, top contractors and clients and the breakdown of spending by segment, i.e. oil, gas, petrochemicals – upstream, downstream, onshore and offshore.

During the virtual event a presentation was shared about the contract awards in the Mena oil, gas and chemical projects market.

The region saw a record capex in the last two years, as operators accelerated critical projects following the pandemic. It noted that as the largest economy and biggest oil producer, Saudi Arabia has dominated spending. The UAE and Qatar are the second and third largest spenders, respectively.

The presentation explained the different stages of Mena oil, gas and chemical projects and noted that the value of gas projects under execution is considerably larger than oil and chemical projects. However, when it comes to planned projects, the three segments are set to witness almost an even level of spending, indicating the emphasis that project operators are placing on all segments of the hydrocarbon value chain.

Regional energy producers have spent tens of billions of dollars, especially since the start of this decade, on oil and gas output capacity increase projects, with chemicals also being a key area of capital expenditure.

On major planned projects in the Mena region the presentation noted that every major energy company intends to push forward with projects deemed critical to their strategic long-term goals in the second half of this decade.

Highlighting QatarEnergy’s liquefied natural gas expansion projects it explained that the LNG expansion is moving ahead and is on track to achieve an increased production capacity of 142 million tonnes a year (t/y).

QatarEnergy is understood to have spent almost $30bn on the two phases of the North Field LNG expansion programme, North Field East and North Field South, which will increase its LNG production capacity from 77.5 million t/y to 126 million t/y by 2028, it noted.

The engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) work on the two projects is making progress. QatarEnergy awarded the main EPC contracts in 2021 for the North Field East project, which is projected to increase LNG output to 110 million t/y by 2025.

The main $13bn EPC package, which covers engineering, procurement, construction and installation of four LNG trains with capacities of 8 million t/y each, was awarded to a consortium of Japan’s Chiyoda Corporation and France’s Technip Energies in February 2021.

QatarEnergy awarded the $10bn main EPC contract for the North Field South LNG project, covering two large LNG processing trains, to a consortium of Technip Energies and Lebanon-based Consolidated Contractors Company in May 2023.

Meanwhile in February 2024, QatarEnergy announced a third phase of its North Field LNG expansion programme. To be called North Field West, the project will further increase QatarEnergy’s LNG production capacity to 142 million t/y when it is commissioned by 2030.

The North Field West project will have an LNG production capacity of 16 million t/y, which is expected to be achieved through two 8 million t/y LNG processing trains. The new project will draw feedstock for LNG production from the western zone of Qatar’s North Field offshore gas reserve.