Shell seeks new partnership for LNG expansion

10 October 2018
Oil major already has a stake in gas operations in the country

The UK/Netherlands' Royal Dutch Shell is interested in forming a joint venture with QP for the expansion of its LNG production capacity, the company’s CEO Ben Van Beurden told the Oil & Money Conference in London on 9 October.

“We have a very compelling set of attributes that we can bring to a partnership,” Van Beurden said. Shell plans to offer a joint venture partnership proposal.

Shell has a 30 per cent stake in Qatargas 4, which has capacity to produce 7.8m tonnes a year. It started operating in January 2011.

President and chief executive officer of QP Saad al-Kaabi told the conference earlier that preferred option is to form one or more joint venture for its LNG expansion programme. This involves building four new LNG trains and raising annual total LNG export capacity to 110m tonnes from 77m tonnes at present.

Al-Kaabi said the front-end engineering and design (feed) project is due to be completed by Chiyoda next March. This will then be followed by EPC bids. No budget has yet been announced for the expansion.

QP has already invited bids for contracts to build between 70 and 100 new rigs and equipment to produce the required additional gas from the North Field.

It plans to extract ethane from North Field natural gas for the first time and will use it in one of the world’s biggest ethane crackers, Al-Kaabi said.

A MEED Subscription...

Subscribe or upgrade your current MEED.com package to support your strategic planning with the MENA region’s best source of business information. Proceed to our online shop below to find out more about the features in each package.