Saudi Arabia and Iraq could join the LNG export party

In the longer term, the two Gulf heavyweights may become gas exporters. But Egypt’s return to the table could be in doubt

“Saudi Arabia certainly has ambitions to enter the global LNG market,” Patricia Tiller, a Dubai-based partner at law firm Hunton Andrews Kurth told a Mena panel as part of the Petroleum Economist LNG to Power Forum on Monday. But she cautioned that progress would not be immediate. “Plans are to export as much as 3bn ft³/d by 2030,” she continues. And there are “whispers” from the Kingdom’s energy minister that the target could be brought forward to an earlier date. “We have seen a lot of investment, even just in the past year, to boost the country’s gas production,” Tiller notes. “But, beyond that, the plans for gas exports are very much in their preliminary stages. “The reason for that is t