LNG giant Shell is the latest international firm to join QatarEnergy’s huge LNG expansion project, which will boost Qatar’s LNG export capacity by 32 million tons per annum.
Shell is the fifth partner to join the $28.75 billion North Field East (NFE) expansion project after France’s TotalEnergies, Italy’s Eni, and US firms ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil.
The company said on Tuesday it would hold a 25 percent share in a joint venture company which would own 25 percent of the North Field East expansion project, including the four mega LNG trains with a capacity of 32 Mtpa.
This means that Shell will have a 6.25 percent stake in the project, such as ExxonMobil and TotalEnergies, while Eni and ConocoPhillips will hold 3.12 percent each.
Shell said its investment in this LNG expansion would support delivery of much-needed supplies of natural gas to markets around the world.
The project will also feature carbon capture and sequestration to reduce emissions.
Landmark project
“I am honoured that Shell has been selected by QatarEnergy. Through its pioneering integration with carbon capture and storage, this landmark project will help provide LNG the world urgently needs with a lower carbon footprint,” Shell CEO, Ben van Beurden, said.
“This agreement deepens our strategic partnership with QatarEnergy which includes multiple international partnerships such as the world-class Pearl GTL asset,” he said.
In February last year, QatarEnergy took a final investment decision on the NFE project to boost Qatar’s annual LNG capacity from 77 million tons to 110 million tons.
The state-owned firm is developing a second phase to further boost capacity to 126 Mtpa by 2027 as well as additional expansions.
QatarEnergy and its unit Qatargas are also working on a giant fleet of LNG carriers to support this expansion and the firms already completed the first contracts in China and South Korea, with more to come.
Partner selection concluded
QatarEnergy said in a separate statement that the firm has now concluded partner selection for its NFE expansion project.
“We value our long and fruitful relations and strategic partnership with Shell, not just within the State of Qatar, but in many other locations around the world,” Qatar’s energy minister and chief executive of QatarEnergy, Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, said in the statement.
“And, as one of the largest players in the LNG business, they have a lot to bring to help meet global energy demand and security,” he said.
(Article updated with a statement by QatarEnergy.)
