Eni to reportedly join Exxon, Total and Shell in Qatar’s LNG expansion

The Italian producer is set to be participating in the country’s near $30 billion expansion for one of the world’s largest LNG projects.

Qatar is currently undertaking a $30 billion expansion project for enhancing its liquefied natural gas (LNG) production in the near future. Known as the North Field Expansion (NFE) plan, the initiative includes six mega LNG trains to scale its liquefaction capacity from 77 million tonnes per annum to 126 mtpa by 2027. For that, Qatar Petroleum has been seeking partners to complete one of the largest LNG expansion projects in the world.

As reported by the news agency Reuters, the most recent player to have joined the initiative is Italian energy company Eni. It has reportedly been picked to join four other oil companies to complete the NFE plan, alongside Exxon Mobil Corp, TotalEnergies, Shell and ConocoPhillips.

The NFE project is set to boost Qatar’s position as the world’s top LNG exporter by ramping its liquefaction production by 64%. It will also help to guarantee long term supply of gas to Europe after the shortage produced as a consequence of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

According to one of the sources cited by the news agency, Exxon, Shell and Total are expected to have between 20% and 25% in total of the offtake of the new projects. A second source specified that the three companies are likely to get an offtake of one train each, which leads up to Eni and Conoco sharing the offtake of the fourth.

The project is set to be completed in two phases, the first one encompassing four trains for the North Field East expansion. The two remaining will be part of the second phase of the project, known as the North Field South expansion.