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Qatar and the US discussed cooperation in the field of energy security on Saturday amid an ongoing global energy struggle in light of the Ukraine crisis.
The discussions came during a meeting in Doha between Qatar’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and US Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs Amos Hochstein.
“During the meeting, they reviewed bilateral cooperation relations between the two countries, especially in the field of energy security, in addition to a number of regional and international issues of common interest,” said the Gulf state’s foreign ministry.
The US had turned to Qatar earlier this year ahead of the Russian invasion of Ukraine amid a scramble to secure Europe’s energy supply. The energy crisis has also been attributed to the Covid-19 outbreak, which heavily impacted global supplies.
Europe, which was already grappling with an energy crisis, received 40% of its gas supplies from Moscow prior to the invasion, with almost a third of the shipments passing through Ukraine.
Some of the European countries that sought Qatari gas supplies include Italy, the UK, and France.
On Wednesday, the President of the European Council Charles Michel paid an official visit to Qatar where he stressed that Europe’s relation with Qatar is a crucial “leverage to overcome together those extremely difficult challenges.”
The Gulf state repeatedly expressed its willingness to help its global partners overcome such challenges.
Qatar’s Ministry of State for Energy Affairs Saad Al-Kaabi has previously noted that the Gulf state cannot unilaterally fill the potential gap in Europe’s gas supply. The Gulf state also has long-term contracts primarily with Asian buyers, with Qatar continuing to be a reliable energy partner.
“We have been a very reliable partner to all our buyers […] and we have have seen that the energy crisis is growing in the entire world [and still] we supplied to Asia and Europe and we didn’t give priority to one over the other,” Sheikh Mohammed told Singapore-based media during his Asia tour last month.
Qatar has the world’s third-biggest proven natural gas reserves and is on its way to dominate global productions of liquefied natural gas (LNG) through its North Field Expansion project.
Under the first phase of the project, the biggest of its kind globally, Qatar is raising its LNG production from 77 million tonnes to 110 million tonnes by 2025, representing a 43% increase.
The second part of the project, the biggest of its kind, will ramp up Qatar’s LNG production to 126 million tonnes by 2027.
In July, Qatar concluded its announcement of partners for the North Field East (NFE), the first phase of the project. The companies include Shell, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, Eni, and TotalEnergies.
QatarEnergy began looking into potential partners in 2019, with production expected to start before the end of 2025.
