Plans by Qatar to entrench its position as the world’s largest liquefied natural gas supplier are firmly in place as the tiny Persian Gulf country nears the award of key contracts for the North Field expansion (NFE) project.

State-owned Qatar Petroleum (QP) has also shortlisted a group of major oil companies seeking to join in the project.

The goal is to have the main onshore engineering, procurement and construction contract awarded before the end of the year and to have the successful international partners on board by the first quarter of 2020 at the latest.

Tendering for offshore work is also under way.

QP chief executive Saad al-Kaabi is holding talks with the likes of existing LNG partners ExxonMobil, Total, Shell and ConocoPhillips over potential participation in the expansion project, which aims to boost Qatar's LNG capacity to 110 million tonnes per annum from the current 77 million tpa.

Other contenders are also in the running to participate.

Kaabi expects the four new mega-trains to come on line at intervals of three to six months after the first starts up in 2024.

"We are on track, but it is the construction scheduling that will determine some of that," he says.

The onshore packages, which include the liquefaction facilities, storage tanks, utilities and sulphur-handling facilities, are together thought likely to be worth upwards of $18 billion.

QP issued tender documents in April to three shortlisted consortia for work on the four 7.8 million tpa mega-trains.

They were sent to a consortium of Japan’s Chiyoda and UK-based TechnipFMC, another grouping of Japan’s JGC and South Korean giant Hyundai Engineering & Construction, and a third group comprising Saipem, McDermott International and Taiwan’s CTCI.

This tender package involves the EPC work for the four liquefaction trains with gas and liquid treatment facilities.

The work on storage tanks, utilities and the sulphur-handling facilities is being tendered as separate packages.

QP has argued it can go it alone on the whole expansion if the talks with its existing foreign LNG partners and other contenders do not come to fruition.

Partners would be offered minority stakes of up to 30% in NFE.

Much depends on what the partners could bring to the table, including offering QP the potential to take an interest in overseas assets.

"It could be something that we want to do outside Qatar — it could be swaps, some support in the market, an offtake [arrangement]. It could be a lot of things," Kaabi says.

QP has recently been expanding its international upstream footprint, often by farming in to offshore acreage held by international majors.

Kaabi says a decision to self-finance the project, tender for its construction and drill appraisal wells before selecting partners is part of a strategy to up the ante on what majors must now offer Qatar for a piece of its top asset.

Supply deals

QP is keen to secure more long-term LNG supply deals, including in Europe, where it has signed an agreement for unloading services at Belgium’s Zeebrugge LNG Terminal, securing its full capacity through 2044.

“We’re going to do more in Europe — you’re going to see,” he says. QP currently sells around 80% of its volumes to long-term buyers and Kaabi expects new deals to be announced by the end of the year.

In addition to the contracts covering the offshore and onshore work, QP has issued an invitation to tender for construction of the LNG carrier fleet for the NFE project.

The invitation foresees initial delivery of 60 LNG carriers, with the potential to exceed 100 new vessels over the next 10 years.

LNG

Qatar aims to keep top LNG supply spot