Qatar Energy (QE) has signed two long-term LNG sales and purchase agreements (SPAs) with a wholly-owned affiliate of the US oil and gas group ConocoPhillips for the delivery of up to 2 Mt/year of LNG from Qatar to the future German LNG terminal in Brunsbüttel (northern Germany) as of 2026, for at least 15 years. The LNG will come from two QatarEnergy-ConocoPhillips joint ventures (JV) in Qatar’s North Field East (NFE) and North Field South (NFS) LNG expansion projects, which are expected to start production in 2026 and 2027 respectively.
Earlier in November 2022, QE selected ConocoPhillips as its third partner on the 16 Mt/year North Field South (NFS) LNG project in Qatar, awarding the company a 6.25% stake. In September and October 2022, TotalEnergies and Shell had each been awarded a 9.375% stake in the project, of which Qatar Energy will hold the remaining 75%. ConocoPhillips had already partnered with QE in June 2022 on the 32 Mt/year North Field East (NFE) LNG project (with a 6.25% stake), alongside TotalEnergies, Shell, Eni, and Exxon Mobil. Together, NFE and NFS form the wider North Field Expansion project to increase LNG production from the North Field, adding 48 Mt/year to Qatar’s export capacity and bringing it to 126 Mt/year by 2027-2028.
The German LNG project in Brunsbüttel (Schleswig-Holstein) will be built in phases, including a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) that could be commissioned by the end of 2023, and an onshore regasification plant of 8 bcm/year (upscalable to 10 bcm/year) with two LNG tanks with a capacity of 165,000 m3 each that could be operational as of 2026.