China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and QatarEnergy have signed a 27-year sales and purchase agreement (SPA), under the terms of which China will purchase 4 Mt/year (5.5 bcm/year) of LNG from Qatar. CNPC will also take an equity stake in the eastern expansion of Qatar's North Field East LNG project, equivalent to 5% of one LNG train with a capacity of 8 Mt/year. This is Doha’s second large gas supply deal with a Chinese state-controlled company, as QatarEnergy signed another 27-year supply agreement with China's Sinopec in November 2022, also for 4 Mt/year. Similarly, Sinopec also took a 5% equity stake in an 8 Mt/year LNG train in April 2023.
In 2022, QatarEnergy selected five partners for its 32 Mt/year North Field East LNG project, namely the UK’s Shell, France’s TotalEnergies and Italy’s Eni, as well as the USA’s Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips. Qatar is partnering with international energy companies in the first phase of the US$30bn expansion of its North Field project, which was launched in 2019. It is currently under construction and is set to increase Qatar's total LNG export capacity from 77 Mt/year to around 110 Mt/year by 2027. Qatar is also developing the 16 Mt/year North Field South LNG project, for which QatarEnergy has partnered with Shell, TotalEnergies and ConocoPhillips. 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 2028.