BARCELONA, Spain — Qatar Petroleum CEO Saad Al-Kaabi said his company is planning to make the final investment decision (FID) on three new liquefied natural gas (LNG) trains by the end of 2019.
The executive told reporters on the sidelines of the Gastech conference here the firm is in talks with oil majors for potential partnerships for the new trains, Kallanish Energy reports.
A spokesperson said Al-Kaabi held a number of meetings and talks with senior international energy leaders and executives, including the energy minister of Lebanon, and the CEOs of Repsol, Uniper Energy, Novatek and Vitol.
“Discussions during the meetings covered various aspects of cooperation in the energy field,” the spokesperson said.
Qatar, currently the world’s No. 1 LNG producer, is in the middle of a production expansion plan to reach 100 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) of capacity by the end of 2023. That’s a 33% increase from the current 77 Mtpa capacity, driven by the country’s confidence in future global demand for “clean energy.”
Al-Kaabi said China and India, as well as other Asian and African countries are helping to increase demand for LNG. He also added that declining production in Europe means additional and continued demand for LNG, with some of the gas deals to meet such demand expected to be short-term, but “the bulk will be long-term.”
