Qatar Secures Second Major Gas Supply Deal With China

Qatar signed a 27 year liquefied natural gas supply agreement with China National Petroleum Corporation, its second major gas deal with a Chinese state owned firm within twelve months and a sign of its deepening role as a preferred supplier to Beijing.

QatarEnergy and CNPC concluded the accord on Tuesday, setting annual purchases of four million metric tonnes of LNG and granting CNPC a 5 percent equity stake in one production train that has a capacity of eight million tonnes a year.

The arrangement follows a comparable November 2022 agreement between QatarEnergy and Sinopec for four million tonnes annually over 27 years, and it marks the third such Asian supply deal tied to Qatar's North Field expansion.

Energy Minister Saad al Kaabi said the agreements would further strengthen ties with one of the most important gas markets in the world.

The deals reflect China's push to secure long term energy supplies after Russia's invasion of Ukraine intensified global competition for LNG, particularly as European nations sought alternatives to Russian pipeline gas.

The North Field expansion, in which QatarEnergy retains a 75 percent stake, requires a minimum investment of $30 billion and underpins Qatar's standing as the world's top LNG exporter.

Beijing bought certainty that the war on Iran keeps out of reach. Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz, which carried at least 20 percent of global crude and LNG before the war; a June ceasefire collapsed over control of it, and traffic has partly recovered, Al Jazeera reports. At Ras Laffan, the attack on trains 4 and 6 damaged roughly 13 million tonnes of capacity needing three to five years to restore, Rystad Energy's Rahul Choudhary told Al Jazeera, and he expects ExxonMobil's Qatari LNG share to fall to about four million tonnes this year from 13 million. Trump has ruled out attacks before the November 3 midterms; whether Hormuz shipping steadies afterward decides when China's Qatari cargoes move freely.