Al-Kaabi said on Tuesday during a session at the Qatar Economic Forum, powered by Bloomberg, that QatarEnergy started trading “just a few years back.”
“What we saw is that there was money left on the table, if you will. Traders from around the world were buying. But, you know, we have some spot cargoes sometimes, and they would buy our cargo and make money out of it. And we have the capability and can actually, you know, establish a trading organization. So we did,” he said.
Al-Kaabi said that QatarEnergy’s trading unit is currently trading “around ten million tons of LNG, physical trading.”
He said the “mandate is more than 50 percent needs to be non-Qatari volume, which is the case today.”
“The ambition is by 2030 to reach somewhere in the range of 30 to 40 million tons of non-Qatari LNG traded by our trading group,” he said.
He also discussed whether QatarEnergy will reserve a portion of the output from the North Field expansion for spot trading.
“I think, you know, we’re going to be producing 160 million tonnes of LNG via projects that we are participating in, if you include the US,” he said.
“We’re at 77 million tons today. We have 70 ships, today we’re adding 128,” Al-Kaabi said.
“So all that will have will be really under the control of our trading organization where they control the trade spot, trade some of that volume. Not all of the volume will be locked up in long-term deals, but we will have plenty to deal with,” Al-Kaabi added.
QatarEnergy is working on the giant North Field LNG expansion program, which includes the North Field South and North Field West projects. Together, these will raise Qatar’s LNG production capacity from the current 77 mtpa to 142 mtpa in 2030.
The first two projects include six mega trains, each with a production capacity of 8 mtpa of LNG. Four of these are part of the North Field East expansion project, and two are part of the North Field South expansion project.
In February 2024, QatarEnergy also announced the North Field West project, which will add 16 mtpa of LNG to the overall expansion of the North Field.
