QatarEnergy has announced that it is proceeding with a new LNG expansion project, the “North Field West” project, to raise the nation’s LNG production capacity to 142 million tons per annum (MTPA) before the end of this decade.
This represents an increase of almost 85% from current production levels.
Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, Minister of State for Energy Affairs and President and CEO of QatarEnergy, made the announcement during a press conference on Sunday. He said that extensive appraisal drilling and testing have confirmed that productive layers of Qatar’s giant North Field extend towards the west which allows for developing a new LNG production project in Ras Laffan.
QatarEnergy has focused its efforts and attention on determining how far west the North Field’s productive layers extend to evaluate the production potential from those areas. Additional gas quantities in the North Field are estimated at 240 trillion cubic feet, which raises the State of Qatar’s gas reserves from 1,760 to more than 2,000 trillion cubic feet, and the condensates reserves from 70 to more than 80 billion barrels, in addition to large quantities of liquefied petroleum gas, ethane, and helium.
These results enable the company to begin developing a new LNG project from the North Field’s western sector with a production capacity of about 16 MTPA. The State of Qatar's total LNG production will reach about 142 MTPA when this new expansion is completed. With the completion of this project, the State of Qatar’s total hydrocarbon production will exceed 7.25 million barrels of oil equivalent per day.
QatarEnergy will immediately commence the basic engineering works.
QatarEnergy continues work to implement various elements of the North Field production expansion projects, including the North Field East project and the North Field South project.