Qatar to supply Kuwait with more LNG under new long-term deal

Qatar will supply LNG to Kuwait under a new long-term deal as the OPEC producer is looking to import more natural gas to meet soaring power demand in the summer.

QatarEnergy, the state firm of one of the world’s top LNG exporters, signed on August 26 an agreement to supply 3 million tons of LNG to Kuwait per year in a 15-year deal with Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC).

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Qatar, which has a similar LNG supply deal with Kuwait from 2020, will begin deliveries from the new contract in 2025, KPC’s chief executive officer, Sheikh Nawaf al-Sabah, said in remarks carried by Reuters.

The LNG will be shipped to the Al Zour port in Kuwait and will come from both existing and future projects of QatarEnergy, which plans a massive expansion of its LNG export capacity this decade.

Some of the LNG in the new deal will be supplied to Kuwait from the planned expansion of the North Field in Qatar, while the other part will come from currently producing LNG trains, said Saad al-Kaabi, chief executive of QatarEnergy and Qatar’s Minister of State for Energy Affairs.

As Kuwait is looking to boost its natural gas supply to meet air conditioning demand in the scorching summers in the Middle East, another major hydrocarbon producer in the region, Qatar, wants to continue to be a major player on the global LNG export market.

Qatar is backing up its massive LNG expansion plans with new orders to charter dozens of new ships as the tiny Gulf gas producer aims to solidify its dominance in the global LNG export market.

Last year, the United States overtook Qatar as the world’s largest LNG exporter, but Qatar has a huge expansion program underway to boost its export capacity by a whopping 85% from current levels by 2030.