Here is how Eni and Total will get gas with the LNG of Qatar
Several Western oil companies, such as Total and Eni, will collaborate on a large LNG project in Qatar. In the United States, meanwhile, the FBI is investigating a former general accused of lobbying on behalf of Doha. All the details
On Sunday 12 June the Qatari state-owned energy company QatarEnergy signed a collaboration agreement with France's TotalEnergies for the expansion of North Field, the largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in the world.
OTHER COMPANIES INVOLVED (THERE IS ALSO ENI)
Saad al-Kaabi, CEO of QatarEnergy and Qatar's Minister of Energy, announced that the names of the other partner companies in the project will be announced in the coming days. According to Reuters sources, these are oil companies Eni, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips and Shell (even Startmag had written about it a week ago). None of them, however, will have a higher share than that of TotalEnergies, as specified by Kaabi himself.
TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné said the company will have a 25 percent stake in one of North Field's liquefaction and purification "trains" (that's the technical name for these plants).
NUMBERS AND DETAILS OF THE NORTH FIELD PROJECT
The first phase of expansion of the North Field project is also the largest, worth nearly $ 30 billion. There will be six liquefaction trains in all – four in the first phase, called North Field East, and two in the second, called North Field South – and will allow for an increase in Qatar's liquefaction capacity from 77 to 126 million tons per year. by 2027.
With North Field East's four liquefaction trains counting as one unit, TotalEnergies' 25 percent stake in one of the plants is equivalent to 6.2 percent of the total.
HOW MUCH QATAR MATTERS FOR TOTALENERGIES
Pouyanné stated that "this project in Qatar is important for us", because TotalEnergies has announced that it will no longer invest in Russia: it was involved in the Arctic LNG 2 project on liquefied gas, which also involved the Italian Saipem (controlled by Eni and Cassa deposits and loans).
WHO WILL LNG GO TO
Once the investments in the project are completed, half of the volume of LNG produced by North Field will go to Asia, and the other half to Europe (which is in a hurry to break away from Russian hydrocarbons): the demand for this fuel is strong in both markets.
Qatar is one of the largest LNG exporters in the world, along with the United States.
THE “ALLEN CASE” BETWEEN QATAR AND THE UNITED STATES
Last week the FBI, the United States Federal Police, seized the electronic data of former American general John R. Allen – commander of the Marines and the NATO mission in Afghanistan, as well as president of the important think tank Brookings Institution – , accused of making false statements and hiding "incriminating" documents about his role in an illegal lobbying campaign on behalf of Qatar.
According to the indictment, Allen helped Qatar influence US foreign policy in the Persian Gulf in 2017, but did not disclose his multimillion-dollar deals with Doha. Allen denies this reconstruction, claiming that he acted to prevent the start of a war in the Gulf that would have put American troops at risk.
THE PERSIAN GULF CRISIS OF 2017, IN BRIEF
In June 2017, a major crisis broke out between Qatar and several majority or Sunni-led countries (a current of Islam): Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain had interrupted diplomatic relations with the Qatari government, accused of supporting terrorism and being close to Iran (Shiite and regional opponent of Riyadh), also imposing an economic embargo on it.
Initially the United States – then led by Donald Trump – had sided against Qatar; later, however, they had adopted a less harsh and more conciliatory posture. Behind this change of tone, according to the American authorities, would be Allen's pressure on the then national security adviser to the Trump administration, HR McMaster.
Qatar is a major contributor to the Brookings Institution.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/qatar-espansione-progetto-north-field/ on Mon, 13 Jun 2022 07:27:43 +0000.