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QatarEnergy LNG, formerly Qatargas, is the world's largest
liquefied natural gas Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4, with some mixture of ethane, C2H6) that has been cooled to liquid form for ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport. It takes up about 1/600th the volume o ...
(LNG) company. It produces and supplies the globe with 77 million metric tonnes of LNG annually from across its seven ventures—QatarEnergy LNG N(1), QatarEnergy LNG N(2), QatarEnergy LNG N(3), QatarEnergy LNG N(4), RL1, RL2 and RL3. It is headquartered in
Doha Doha ( ) is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor (city), Al Khor and Lusail, it is home to most of the country's population. It ...
,
Qatar Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...
, and maintains its upstream assets in Ras Laffan, Qatar. Natural gas is supplied to the company's LNG trains from Qatar's North Field, by far the world's largest non-associated gas field. It reached a record LNG production of 77 million tonnes per year in December 2010. According to Brand Finance, QatarEnergy LNG is the world's fastest growing oil and gas brand in 2023.


History


1984–2000

QatarEnergy LNG was established in 1984 as Qatargas (Qatargas Liquefied Gas Company Limited), a joint venture between QatarEnergy,
ExxonMobil Exxon Mobil Corporation ( ) is an American multinational List of oil exploration and production companies, oil and gas corporation headquartered in Spring, Texas, a suburb of Houston. Founded as the Successors of Standard Oil, largest direct s ...
and other partners. In the following years the company began developing the North Field and erected the first three LNG trains (Train 1, 2 and 3) with a design capacity of 3.3 million tonnes per year each. The trains were built in 1996, 1997 and 1998 respectively. The company executed the first two major sales and purchase agreements with eight Japanese customers in 1992 and 1994, the company Chubu Electric Power being the largest. The contract guaranteed the delivery of 4 million tonnes of LNG per year to Chubu Electric and six million tonnes per year over a 25-year period for the eight customers. In 1993 Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Company was established as a subsidiary for the operation and maintenance of LNG and
Helium Helium (from ) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol He and atomic number 2. It is a colorless, odorless, non-toxic, inert gas, inert, monatomic gas and the first in the noble gas group in the periodic table. Its boiling point is ...
production, and also operates as a subsidiary of QatarEnergy, based in
Doha Doha ( ) is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor (city), Al Khor and Lusail, it is home to most of the country's population. It ...
. The official foundation stone for Qatargas 1 was laid in 1994 and in 1995 another major contract with the Korea Gas Corporation (KOGAS) was signed, guaranteeing the supply of 2.4 million tonnes of LNG per year. Also, in 1995, the first offshore drilling operations were begun. In 1996 LNG production began. The first
LNG carrier An LNG carrier is a tank ship designed for transporting liquefied natural gas (LNG). Overview The first oceangoing liquified natural gas tanker in the world was '' Methane Pioneer'', which entered service in 1959 with a carrying capacity of ...
named ''Al Zubara'' was delivered to Qatargas in 1996. The first shipment of LNG was loaded and delivered to Japan in 1996 and Spain ( Enagás) in 1997 from Ras Laffan Industrial City's port. In the same year, 1997, the then Emir
Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani (; born 1 January 1952) is a member of Qatar's royal family, the House of Thani. He was the ruling Emir of Qatar from 1995 until 2013 when he abdicated the throne, handing power to his fourth son Tamim bin Hamad Al ...
inaugurated the Qatargas 1 LNG plant and facilities and the first sulfur plant launched operation ( Sulfur Plant 1). 2000 marked 10 million tonnes of LNG delivered to
Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
since shipment commencement in 1996.


2001–2010

Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Company II (RL II) and RasGas Company Ltd. were established in 2001 to operate the LNG trains and associated facilities, also located in Ras Laffan Industrial City. In the same year a 25-year contract with Edison Gas was signed. In 2002 a contract was signed with BP, for the delivery of 750,000 tonnes of LNG per year to Spain. The first shipment was scheduled for the third quarter of 2003 and the ''British Merchant'', a BP-operated LNG vessel, was assigned to carry shipments over a three-year period. In the same year QatarEnergy signed an agreement with
ExxonMobil Exxon Mobil Corporation ( ) is an American multinational List of oil exploration and production companies, oil and gas corporation headquartered in Spring, Texas, a suburb of Houston. Founded as the Successors of Standard Oil, largest direct s ...
for the construction of two additional LNG trains (Train 4 and 5), forming the "Qatargas 2" joint-venture. Exxon and other partners invested around $12.8 billion into the joint-venture. The foundation stone was laid in February 2005. In 2003, a joint venture for the Ras Laffan helium project was formed. It produced the first helium in August 2005. Qatargas 3 was formed in the same year between QatarEnergy and ConocoPhillips. Another Head of Agreement between QatarEnergy and RL (II) to supply 15.6 Mta of LNG to the USA was signed in 2003. RasGas also began to build and operate the first phase of the Al Khaleej Gas project ("AK-1" or "AKG-1") for domestic gas supply on behalf of QatarEnergy and ExxonMobil Middle East Gas Marketing. In 2004 the first dedicated LNG vessel ''Fuwairit'' was delivered to RL (II), and in 2005 AK-1 was inaugurated and started, as well as Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Company Limited (III) (RLIII) established, which owns RasGas' trains 6 and 7, the company's first mega-trains. Another agreement between
Shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses Science Biology * Seashell, a hard outer layer of a marine ani ...
and Qatargas was made to erect Qatargas 4 ("QG4"). Qatargas Operating Company Limited was formed in July 2005 for the purpose of constructions of Qatargas 2, Qatargas 3, Qatargas 4, Laffan Refinery and other assets on behalf of the shareholders. Qatargas also announced a moratorium on further development of the North Field in 2005, and ordered further studies and a review of the field, which were expected to end in 2010. The moratorium was initially expected to remain in place until 2013 or 2014 but was lifted in 2017. In 2006 the construction for QG3 and QG4 started and RasGas' Train 5 was erected. The train was inaugurated in 2007 as well as the first Q-Max LNG carrier " Al Dafna" floated out of its dry dock (delivered in 2009) and the first Q-Flex ship delivered to Qatargas. In 2008 two major SPAs were signed with
PetroChina PetroChina Company Limited () is a Chinese oil and gas company and is the listed arm of state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), headquartered in Dongcheng District, Beijing. The company is currently Asia's largest oil and ga ...
, for 3 million tonnes per year over 25-years, and 2 million tonnes per year over 25 years with
China National Offshore Oil Corporation China National Offshore Oil Corporation, or CNOOC Group (), is the third-largest national oil companies, national oil company in China, after CNPC (parent of PetroChina) and China Petrochemical Corporation (parent of Sinopec). The CNOOC Group ...
(CNOOC) with the deal totaling around 2 million tonnes per year. It was to begin in October 2009. Another 10-year contract was signed between Qatargas and TT, ordering 1 million tons of LNG a year, starting in 2011. Ras Laffan Helium 1 reached its full production capacity in 2008 and the first LNG shipment to the west coast of
North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...
was completed. As well the first Q-Flex vessel transited the
Suez Canal The Suez Canal (; , ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, Indo-Mediterranean, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia (and by extension, the Sinai Peninsula from the rest ...
. Several other LNG deliveries to Italy ( Adriatic LNG), Mexico ( Altamira), China (CNOOC), Canada ( Canaport LNG), the United Kingdom ( South Hook) and the United States ( Golden Pass) followed in 2009 and new SPAs were signed, like the long-term SPA with PGNiG of Poland. The SPA detailed 1 million tonnes per year over 20 years, with the first delivery being made in 2015. On April 6, 2009, the Qatargas 2 project was officially inaugurated with two mega trains of 7.8 million tonnes per year each. That same year phase 2 of the Al Khaleej Gas project was launched. Following the international economic crisis and the downturn of gas and oil prices in 2008, Qatargas temporarily had to declare force majeure in January 2009 on production of three LNG trains. The company remained on track with its other projects and its general direction. In November 2010 and January 2011, respectively, qatargas 3 and 4 started production. In December 2010, Qatar celebrated achieving the national goal of 77 million tonnes per year for the first time, making it the world's largest LNG producer. Because of the major advances in oil- and gas extracting techniques (
shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of Clay mineral, clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g., Kaolinite, kaolin, aluminium, Al2Silicon, Si2Oxygen, O5(hydroxide, OH)4) and tiny f ...
- or tight gas from rock,
oil sands Oil sands are a type of unconventional petroleum deposit. They are either loose sands, or partially consolidated sandstone containing a naturally occurring mixture of sand, clay, and water, soaked with bitumen (a dense and extremely viscous ...
) Qatargas had to make adjustments in its corporate strategy. Whilst the company initially aimed at European customers and the United States, the increasing production from
North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...
made it necessary focus on
Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...
n markets, with Japan currently importing around 15% of its total gas consumption from Qatargas, and China, India and South Korea being other major customers. In 2010 the Ras Laffan Helium 2 project was also announced, Train 6 began production (adding 7.8 million tonnes per year) and the Laffan Refinery was inaugurated by Al-Thani. Another deal with Respol (Canada) was signed in the same year. Qatargas agreed to deliver the LNG to Canaport using both Q-Flex and Q-Max vessels, each holding the equivalent of approximately 5.6 and 4.6 billion cubic feet of natural gas, respectively. Further major deliveries were made to Dubai and France and in 2010 further talks with the United Kingdom were initiated and a Heads on Agreement was signed. In June 2011 Qatargas then signed a three-year LNG deal with Centrica (UK), valued at around $3.24 billion at the time. The contract has since then been extended to a four-and-a-half-year contract in June 2014 and the latest contract extending the partnership until December 2023. Centrica had originally tried to seal a 20-year contract. In 2010, Sheikh Khalid Bin Khalifa Al Thani was appointed CEO for the new Qatargas.


2011–2020

Qatargas also signed a long-term agreement in 2011 for over 1 million tonnes per year with Malaysia's
Petronas Petroliam Nasional Berhad, commonly known as PETRONAS (stylised in all caps), is a Malaysian Multinational corporation, multinational petroleum, oil and natural gas, gas company headquartered in Kuala Lumpur. Established in 1974, it is a lega ...
, expiring in 2018, which has since been extended until December 2023. Qatargas' Train 7 began production in 2011 (7.8 million tonnes per year) and the Map Ta Phut LNG Terminal was commissioned by Qatargas that same year. In the following year, 2012, Qatargas 1 signed a long-term contract with
Tokyo Electric Power Company is a Japanese electric utility holding company servicing Japan's Kantō region, Yamanashi Prefecture, and the eastern portion of Shizuoka Prefecture. This area includes Tokyo. Its headquarters are located in Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo, an ...
for over 1 million tonnes per year of LNG. Qatargas 3 signed SPAs with PTT of Thailand, Japan's Kanasai and Chubu Electric Power in 2012. In 2013 the Ras Laffan Helium 2 plant was inaugurated and produced its first
helium Helium (from ) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol He and atomic number 2. It is a colorless, odorless, non-toxic, inert gas, inert, monatomic gas and the first in the noble gas group in the periodic table. Its boiling point is ...
that same year. The plant is the largest of its kind in the world and made Qatar the world's largest helium exporter. In 2014 the construction for Laffan Refinery 2 began and the refinery delivered the first Diesel Hydrotreater (DHT). The Procurement and Construction contract (EPC) for the DHT with Samsung Engineering had been signed in 2012. The DHT is able to process per stream day of ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel and was operated at 50% capacity until the Laffan Refinery 2 began production in 2016. The first ship-to-ship transfer (STS) of LNG, following an incident with one of Qatargas' leased vessels in the straights of
Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...
, was carried out in 2014. Also, in 2014, Qatargas announced the successful start-up of the Jetty Boil-off Gas Recovery Project, which aimed to reduce flaring at the Ras Laffan LNG loading berths and was inaugurated in 2015. 2015 saw the 5000th LNG cargo loaded at Ras Laffan Port, 2300 of them having been shipped to Japanese customers, as well as the sale of the first LNG to the Kingdom of Jordan and the first delivery of LNG to Pakistan State Oil Company made in 2016. The 10,000 LNG vessel was loaded at Ras Laffan Port in 2016 and the Laffan Refinery 2 started operations with a refining capacity of 146,000 barrels of condensate per day. It was officially inaugurated by Al-Thani in 2017. In June 2017 Qatargas had to shut down operations of
Helium Helium (from ) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol He and atomic number 2. It is a colorless, odorless, non-toxic, inert gas, inert, monatomic gas and the first in the noble gas group in the periodic table. Its boiling point is ...
1 and Helium 2, due to the economic boycott, which was imposed on Qatar by other
Arab States The Arab world ( '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, comprises a large group of countries, mainly located in West Asia and North Africa. While the majority of people in ...
. Following other major companies like ARAMCO, the preparation and integration of the merger of state-owned companies Qatargas and RasGas, which had been announced in December 2016, was completed in 2017. Qatargas delivered 1.5 million tonnes per year and signed a new SPA with Turkey's Boas, to deliver 1.5 million tonnes per year of LNG for three years, beginning in October 2017. Another deal with
Royal Dutch Shell Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company, headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New ...
to deliver up to 1.1 million tonnes per year of LNG for five years was also signed as well. It aimed to " create a truly unique global energy operator in terms of size, service and reliability" and to " confirm and restrengthen QatarEnergy's superiority in the LNG business yreducing operating costs", stated the QatarEnergy's president and CEO Saad al-Kaabi. The merger of Qatargas and RasGas became operative on 1 January 2018, marking the beginning for a "new" Qatargas and securing its rank as largest LNG producer worldwide. Al-Kaabi gave a press conference on 4 January 2018, stating that the new company would save around $550 million in operating costs per year.


2021–present

In July 2021, the first delivery of LNG with a Q-Max carrier was made by Qatargas to the Krk LNG terminal in
Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...
. This was the first time that Qatargas used the large vessel to deliver 260,000 cubic meters of LNG to a customer. It also delivered its first LNG on a Q-Flex carrier for the Al-Zour LNG receiving terminal in Kuwaits commission. In August 2021, Qatargas announced the completion of the WHP12N platform jacket for the North Field Production Sustainability (NFPS) project. The drilling support structure is the first to ever be built in Qatar for Qatargas and it was celebrated on the Qcon yard where it was fabricated. The Common Sulfur Plant (CSP) located in Ras Laffan achieved 10,000 tonnes of produced sulfur per day starting in September 2021. In October 2021, Shell Qatar presented Qatargas with the Reliable Asset Award for 2020 and the beginning of 2021. In November 2021, a project to build carbon dioxide sequestration facilities at Ras Laffan was announced and would be led by Qatargas along with Axens. The companies TEG technology was the reasoning for the selection of Axens. Qatargas hosted the 17th Engineering Forum in December 2021, which was attended to by over 400 experts in the field of engineering in the gas and oil industries. In January 2022, the Laffan Refinery was visited by a team from ExxonMobil Qatar and presented the facility with an award for outstanding safety performance, with has gone seven years without an injury. Qatargas purchased 10 LNG steam-turbine carriers from various Japanese shipowners. The purchase came about in January 2022 after the charter contracts came to an end and the option to purchase the vessels was possible. Qatargas made deals with
Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...
in March 2022 to begin supplying LNG again during the summer while reducing the winter deliveries. In June 2023, Qatargas completed the pre-qualification list for the major contract for all necessary engineering, procurement, construction and installation ( EPCI) requirements for the compression facilities of its North Field Production Sustainability (NFPS) project. In July, Qatargas awarded
McDermott McDermott or MacDermott is an Irish surname and the anglicised version of Mac Diarmada (also spelled Mac Diarmata), the surname of the ruling dynasty of Moylurg, a kingdom that existed in Connacht from the 10th to 16th centuries. The last ruling ...
the EPCI for the NFPS Offshore Fuel Gas Pipeline and the Subsea Cables Project (COMP1), which includes the installation of subsea pipelines, subsea composite cables, fiber optic cables and onshore pipelines. In August 2023, Qatar agreed to supply
Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...
with LNG starting in 2027. MVM started talks with Qatargas about quantity, pace and shipment. In September 2023, Qatargas changed its name to QatarEnergy LNG. QatarEnergy LNG signed a deal with PetroVietnam Gas for 70,000 tons of LNG to be delivered in April 2024 to its Thi Via LNG terminal.


Operations

The shareholders of the QatarEnergy LNG N(1) are QatarEnergy,
ExxonMobil Exxon Mobil Corporation ( ) is an American multinational List of oil exploration and production companies, oil and gas corporation headquartered in Spring, Texas, a suburb of Houston. Founded as the Successors of Standard Oil, largest direct s ...
,
TotalEnergies TotalEnergies SE is a French multinational integrated energy and petroleum company founded in 1924 and is one of the seven supermajor oil companies. Its businesses cover the entire oil and gas chain, from crude oil and natural gas explorati ...
,
Mitsui is a Japanese corporate group and '' keiretsu'' that traces its roots to the ''zaibatsu'' groups that were dissolved after World War II. Unlike the ''zaibatsu'' of the pre-war period, there is no controlling company with regulatory power. Ins ...
and
Marubeni (, OSE: 8002, NSE: 8002) is a '' sōgō shōsha'' (general trading company) headquartered in Otemachi, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan. It is one of the largest ''sogo shosha'' and has leading market shares in cereal and paper pulp trading as wel ...
. It owns three LNG trains. In 2008, it produced 10.09 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas. The projected production for the end of 2012 was 42 million tonnes per year. QatarEnergy LNG N(2), a joint venture of QatarEnergy and ExxonMobil, owns LNG trains 4 and 5 with a capacity of 7.8 million tonnes per year each. It is supplying LNG for the South Hook LNG terminal at
Milford Haven Milford Haven ( ) is a town and community (Wales), community in Pembrokeshire, Wales. It is on the north side of the Milford Haven Waterway, an estuary forming a natural harbour that has been used as a port since the Middle Ages. The town was ...
,
Pembrokeshire Pembrokeshire ( ; ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county in the South West Wales, south-west of Wales. It is bordered by Carmarthenshire to the east, Ceredigion to the northeast, and otherwise by the sea. Haverfordwest is the largest town and ...
,
Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...
, from where gas is fed to the South Wales Gas Pipeline. This covers 20% of the United Kingdom's needs of LNG. QatarEnergy LNG N(3) is a joint venture between QatarEnergy, ConocoPhillips and Mitsui. QatarEnergy LNG N(4) is a joint venture between QatarEnergy and
Shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses Science Biology * Seashell, a hard outer layer of a marine ani ...
. At first approached as separate projects, QatarEnergy LNG N(3) and N(4) are now being built by a joint asset development team that is staffed by QatarEnergy LNG, ConocoPhillips and Shell employees as well as project direct hires and short term contractors. Its trains have started up by end 2010 (N(3)) and early 2011 (N(4)). QatarEnergy LNG's offshore operations are located approximately northeast of Qatar's mainland on the North Field. The production facilities were commissioned in 1996. Processed gas is transferred to shore with the associated condensate via a single subsea pipeline. QatarEnergy LNG transports its LNG by using two classes of LNG tankers known as Q-Max and Q-Flex. At present QatarEnergy is spending almost $30bn in expanding its North Field, to raise its annual production capacity from 77m tonnes of LNG to 110m by 2025. A second phase is expected to increase it to 126m tonnes by 2027. In March 2024, the first three modules for the Field were completed and left Saipem’s fabrication yard.


Environment

Since 2007 QatarEnergy LNG has relocated over 7,500 live
coral Corals are colonial marine invertebrates within the subphylum Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact Colony (biology), colonies of many identical individual polyp (zoology), polyps. Coral species include the important Coral ...
s from nearshore pipelines to protected offshore areas. Additionally they have deployed over 400 artificial reef modules around Qatar. The Coral Management Programme (CMP) was implemented to sustain and preserve marine biodiversity around Qatar. It is a joint initiative from QatarEnergy LNG, the Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME) and Qatar University which began in 2021 and is part of the Environment Developmental Pillar of Qatar National Vision 2030. The CMP consists of an Artificial Reef Deployment and Coral Relocation and a Coral Nursery located at the Aquatic Fisheries Research Center (AFRC) in Ras Matbakh and it is an alleviation for the North Field Production Sustainability (NFPS) Project. Its implementation is in four phases, first finding a suitable location, second is building an artificial reef to deploy, third is the relocation of the live coral reef to the location from phase one, then finally phase four is to report and monitor the success and response from marine life in the location.


See also

* Qatargas League


References


External links


Company website
{{coord, 25, 54, 34, N, 51, 33, 11, E, display=title Oil and gas companies of Qatar Liquefied natural gas plants Energy companies established in 1984 Non-renewable resource companies established in 1984 Qatari companies established in 1984