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The State of Qatar has been keen to build a solid and ambitious economy that deals with reality and looks to the future with confidence and competence.
The State has supported national efforts aimed at promoting and expanding Qatari industries, in a way that contributes to achieving self-sufficiency for the State on the one hand, and supporting the economic growth of non-oil sectors to be in line with its economic diversification plans pursued by the State, on the other hand.
The Qatari economy has become among the world’s most promising ones, thanks to the approach drawn up by His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani to achieve the Qatar National Vision 2030, which aims to diversify the national economy and shift towards a new knowledge-based economy.
In the field of energy, the State of Qatar is atop the world’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) production and marketing, and supplies gas to a large number of countries, from Argentina to Japan.
Moreover, QatarEnergy has concluded exploration and production agreements with several countries on various continents, and has awarded contracts worth tens of billions of dollars to implement the North East Field and North South Field expansion projects, which will increase Qatar’s LNG production capacity from 77mn tonnes per year to 126mn tonnes per year. The two fields’ production is expected to begin in 2026 and 2027, respectively.
QatarEnergy also signed several agreements to increase the size of its fleet of LNG tankers, by building 100 tankers with a total cost estimated at about QR70bn within three agreements with the three major Korean shipyards.
As for clean energy, the “Al Kharsaa” solar power plant project was opened, to produce 10% of the country’s electrical energy at peak times. QatarEnergy plans to establish two solar power plants in the industrial cities of Mesaieed and Ras Laffan, with them expected to begin producing electricity by the end of 2024.
With a total cost of cost of approximately QR11bn, the Umm Al Houl station – of which the production capacity is 136mn gallons of water per day and 520 megawatts of electricity – is considered the most prominent project to develop and modernise the energy economy.
The North Field Expansion Project is one of the largest energy industry investments in Qatar over the past few years, in addition to being the largest and most competitive LNG projects ever. The project also contributes to strengthening the national economy of Qatar with huge financial returns over decades. Construction works and other activities related to the project’s implementation will also have a significant impact on stimulating economic activity in various local sectors.
The features of the North Field Gas Expansion Project began to materialise on the ground with His Highness the Amir laying its foundation stone in October 2023, for the country’s energy sector to have entered new phase of its long history, and has culminated in a phase that began with the announcement of increasing the volume of Qatar’s gas production from 77mn tonnes to 110mn tonnes in 2026 as a first stage, and to 126mn tonnes in 2027.
In September 2018, QatarEnergy announced an increase in its production of liquefied natural gas from 77mn tonnes to 110mn tonnes annually, by establishing a fourth production line in addition to the three production lines announced in July 2017, and for the new lines to enter the production phase in 2026.
The expansion of the LNG project is divided into two main parts, eastern and southern, with both parts to be fully built and production starting at its full new capacity by 2027. Discovered in 1971, the North Gas Field, which started production in 1989, is the largest in the world, with reserves of 50.97tn cubic meters of gas.
The State of Qatar intends, according to the above figures, to increase its production capacity of LNG by more than 63%, to reach 126mn tonnes per year, through developing the eastern North Field, which is scheduled to enter production in 2026, and the southern North Field, which will be ready to deliver the first shipment in 2027.
TotalEnergies, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, Eni, Shell and Sinopec have been awarded contracts to develop the Eastern North Field in partnership with QatarEnergy, with a total investments cost of about $28.75bn. TotalEnergies, Shell, and ConocoPhillips also won contracts to develop the Southern North Field in partnership with QatarEnergy.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) confirms that the field contains an estimated 51tn cubic meters of natural gas, and about 50bn barrels (7.9bn cubic meters) of natural gas condensate.
Qatar’s increase in the volume of its production of LNG is an important achievement towards ensuring more gas supplies in the future to meet the increasing global demand.
The North Field Expansion Project is one of the largest investments in the energy industry over the past few years, in addition to being the largest and most competitive LNG projects ever.
The project also contains a number of environmental components that support the State of Qatar’s strong commitment to achieving the highest environmental standards and providing reliable solutions in the process of transitioning to low-carbon energy. The carbon dioxide collection and injection system is considered one of the most important environmental elements of the project, as it forms part of the integrated construction of carbon dioxide collection and injection in Ras Laffan, which, when fully operational, will become the largest of its kind in the LNG industry, and one of the largest facilities of its kind ever developed anywhere in the world.
In addition to carbon dioxide collection and injection facilities, the project will feature a number of positive and unique environmental advantages, including providing a large portion of the project’s electrical energy needs from the national electricity network in Qatar. QatarEnergy seeks to secure these needs from the Al Kharsaa solar power station project, which has a capacity of 800 megawatts, in addition to about 800 megawatts from the solar energy station, which QatarEnergy will soon establish as part of its portfolio plan of solar energy projects that aim to reach about 4,000 megawatts before 2030.
The project also contains a system to recover evaporated gas during shipping, which will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 1mn equivalent tons of carbon dioxide annually.
The project will save 10.7mn cubic metres of water annually by recycling and reusing 75% of industrial wastewater.
