Qatar Plans To ‘Significantly Boost’ LNG Trading: Al-Kaabi

Qatar plans to significantly boost its liquefied natural gas trading business to complement its expanding domestic production of LNG, according to HE the Minister of State for Energy Affairs, Saad bin Sherida al-Kaabi.

QatarEnergy set up a trading unit a few years ago, which is already handling 10mn tonnes of physical LNG annually, more than 50% of which is non-Qatari volumes, al-Kaabi said at the Qatar Economic Forum Tuesday.

“The ambition is to reach somewhere in the range (of) 30mn-40mn tonnes of non-Qatari LNG traded by our trading group by 2030,” al-Kaabi, who is also the President and CEO of QatarEnergy, noted.

Al-Kaabi recognised the tremendous growth of QatarEnergy Trading and its future growth.

He said: “Trading was something we started just a few years back. We are now trading around 10mn tonnes of LNG in physical trading. 

We will be producing 160mn tonnes of LNG, if you include the US. And we have 70 LNG ships in our fleet today and we will be adding 128 ships in a few years. So, all that will help our trading to thrive.”

The expansion plan includes LNG exports from the North Field East project, by the middle of 2026, he said.

In the US, QatarEnergy has a majority stake in the Golden Pass project, which is nearing the start of operations.

Al-Kaabi said there is room for growing supply from the US, the world’s top-LNG producer, as well as Qatar. US volumes typically go to Europe and South America and Qatari LNG will predominately serve Asia.

The minister affirmed that he was not worried about a glut in the market.

“Qatar is bullish on global demand for the fuel. The need for the fuel and electricity is rising globally with population growth and the expansion of artificial intelligence.

“You're going to have 1.5-2bn people on this earth in the next 20 to 30 years. And you have 1bn people around the world that don't have basic electricity. So the need for electricity and power is huge,” al-Kaabi said. “We need all that volume. 

The need for electricity and power is huge. So we are not worried at all about having a supply glut or anything like that.”

He said QatarEnergy is discussing sales of additional volumes with buyers in China and India, as well as counterparts in other countries, he said. Still, the talks can be long-drawn.

“You always have sticking points with all negotiations. Everybody wants a better price deal from both sides,” he said.