TotalEnergies gets stake in Qatar's NFE project
TotalEnergies has become the first company to be awarded a stake in Qatar’s North Field East (NFE) expansion project, which will increase the country’s LNG production capacity to 110mn mt/yr by 2027, the company said on June 12.
The French company has been awarded a 25% interest in a new joint venture (JV), alongside national company QatarEnergy which will own 75% interest. The new JV will hold a 25% interest in the 32mn metric tons/year NFE project.
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The $28.7bn NFE project, launched by QatarEnergy in the summer of 2019, is currently under construction. It is intended to increase Qatar's total LNG export capacity from 77mn mt/yr to around 110mn mt/yr by 2027, thanks to the construction of four 8mn mt/yr trains. The upstream part of the project will develop the southeastern area of the field with eight platforms, 80 wells and gas pipelines to the onshore plant.
“It is good news for the fight against climate change as gas and LNG are key to support the energy transition, and notably the shift from coal to gas in many countries,” TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne said.
“This new partnership will indeed enable us to reinforce our global LNG portfolio and, together with Qatar, it will support our ability to contribute to Europe energy security,” he added.
QatarEnergy in a separate statement said more partners are slated to join the project. “As part of the partner selection process, QatarEnergy had received offers for double the equity available, underscoring the high-quality investment case of the NFE project thanks to its economic competitiveness, financial resilience, and also its unique environmental features,” it said. “More partners are slated to join the NFE Project, as final terms have been agreed and the relevant announcements will be made soon.”
ExxonMobil is also expected to get a stake in the project, Reuters reported in early June. The US major joined Shell, ConocoPhillips, Chevron and Italy’s Eni in submitting bids in May 2021 to join the expansion project.
Qatar has also announced a separate expansion project, North Field South (NFS), that will take the country’s LNG production capacity from 110mn mt/yr to 126mn mt/yr by 2027. The NFS project will see the addition of two more trains.