Qatar's LNG ambitions expand anew

A recent North Field find will feed yet more LNG capacity while efforts to secure future markets are intensifying

Expansion of the Qatargas LNG liquefaction complex will get more ambitious again, the CEO of state-owned Qatar Petroleum (QP) Saad al-Kaabi confirmed in late November—the third time since a moratorium on upstream gas development at the supergiant North Field was lifted some two and a half years ago that the scope of new capacity has been revised upwards. In July 2017, following successful exploration in the field's southern sector, proposals merely to debottleneck some of the existing 14 LNG trains at the Ras Laffan gas processing hub were replaced by the North Field expansion (NFE) project. This was then expanded in September 2018 to comprise four new 7.8mn-t/yr LNG trains, intended to lift