A “historic” alliance is being forged. Qatar on Monday announced a 27-year liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply deal with China, saying it was “the longest term” the industry has ever seen, amid the global liquify crisis. energy caused by the war in Ukraine.
This announcement comes as Europe seeks to turn to alternatives to Russian hydrocarbons, without having reached such an agreement with the rich Gulf gas emirate.
State-owned Qatar Energy will export four million tonnes of LNG each year from its new North Field East project to Sinopec (China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation), said Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, Qatar’s energy minister.
Asia, the main market for Qatar’s gas
The deal spans “the longest term in the history of the LNG industry,” said the official, who is also the managing director of Qatar Energy. Asia (China, Japan and South Korea in the lead) is the main market for gas from Qatar, increasingly courted by European countries since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. But negotiations with the Europeans have been difficult, with Germany and other countries refusing to sign the kind of long-term agreements that Qatar has reached with Asian countries.
Qatar is already one of the main producers of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the world, along with the United States and Australia. The offshore North Field is the largest natural gas field in the world which Qatar shares with Iran.
Speaking via video conference from Beijing, Sinopec Chairman Ma Yongsheng called the deal “historic”, pointing out that “Qatar is the world’s largest LNG supplier and China is the largest importer”. .
Already very important, the economic relations between China and the Gulf countries, strategic partners of the United States and the Europeans, have been particularly strengthened in recent years.