DOHA (Middle East Eye) – Qatar has announced its first major gas deal with Germany, as countries in western and central Europe attempt to fill their gap of energy needs.
Qatari Energy Minister Saad Sherida al-Kaabi said on Tuesday that up to two million tons of Qatari liquefied natural gas per year would be transported to Germany beginning in 2026.
The gas contract is set for 15 years, while QatarEnergy, a state-run company, is eyeing other gas deals with European countries.
Kaabi, who is also QatarEnergy’s chief executive, said that his company does not have enough negotiators to handle talks for potential gas deals with many European and Asian countries.
Russia’s war on Ukraine had prompted Germany to find an alternative source to Moscow’s gas - however, Germans still have a looming cold winter to cope with.
Qatar’s LNG would be transported by U.S. firm ConocoPhillips to a new port terminal at Brunsbuttel, a town that lies at the mouth of the Elbe river, near the North Sea, north of Germany.
“There are very intense discussions with European buyers and with Asian buyers. We do not have enough teams to work with everybody, to cater for their needs,” Kaabi said, predicting that they would be a “scarcity of gas coming in the next few years”.
Lance said that the deal was “a vital contribution to world energy security”.
The Germany-Qatar deal comes just days after Doha announced a 27-year agreement to supply China with four million tons of gas annually, the most extended contract in the industry.
Qatar will extract LNG from the North Field East and North Field South projects in the Persian Gulf, which are currently developing with ConocoPhillips and other energy companies.
The country is aiming to increase its production by 60 percent by 2027 by expanding the North Field, the world’s largest natural gas reserve, which runs along the Gulf into Iranian maritime territory.
China, Japan and South Korea are the leading importers of Qatar’s LNG.