QatarEnergy has selected Eni as a partner in the North Field East (NFE) expansion project, the single largest project in the history of the LNG industry. This announcement marks the second partnership in the $28.75 billion NFE mega project, which will expand Qatar’s LNG production capacity from the current 77 million tons per annum (MTPA) to 110 MTPA.
This agreement will see QatarEnergy and Eni become partners in a new joint venture company (JV), in which QatarEnergy will hold a 75 percent interest while Eni will hold the remaining 25 percent interest. The JV will in turn own 12.5 percent of the entire NFE project, whose 4 mega LNG trains have a combined nameplate capacity of 32 MTPA. This collaboration also covers LNG deliveries through the Fluxys LNG terminal in Zeebrugge in Belgium.
This is Eni’s first entry ever into Qatar’s upstream sector.
Last week, QatarEnergy had picked TotalEnergies as its first foreign partner for the NFE project. QatarEnergy will own 75 percent of the joint venture with the French major, with the JV in turn owning 25 percent of the world’s largest liquefied natural gas development project.
The partnership agreement with Eni was signed at QatarEnergy’s headquarters in Doha on Sunday by the Minister of State for Energy Affairs and President and CEO of QatarEnergy HE Saad Sherida Al Kaabi and the CEO of Eni Claudio Descalzi. Senior executives from both companies were also present at the signing ceremony of the partnership agreement.
Speaking at the event Kaabi said, “I would like to welcome Eni as a new member of Qatar’s LNG family. This agreement will strengthen our mutual cooperation for decades to come. It is an important addition to a series of partnerships with Eni, which include upstream exploration projects in a number of locations around the world as QatarEnergy expands its international footprint.”
He explained that recently he had discussed the details of the world’s largest LNG project and its unique and advanced environmental characteristics including significant carbon capture and sequestration technologies and capacity.
According to him, the project’s economic competitiveness, financial resilience and its unique environmental features provided leading international energy companies with strong incentives to be part of this tender, that covered double the offered
equity.
The minister further said, “I would like to thank His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani for his wise leadership and for his unwavering support to Qatar’s energy sector.”
On his part, Descalzi said, “We are honoured and delighted for having been selected as partner in the North Field East expansion project. As a newcomer joining this world leading LNG project, we feel the privilege and the responsibility of being a strategic partner of choice for the State of Qatar. This agreement is a significant milestone for Eni and fits our objective to diversify into cleaner and more reliable energy sources in line with our decarbonization strategy. Eni looks forward to working with QatarEnergy on this project to positively contribute to increasing worldwide gas security of supply.”
More partners are slated to join the NFE Project, and the relevant announcements will be made soon.