ConocoPhillips now joins QatarEnergy’s NFE LNG project

QatarEnergy signed a deal with ConocoPhillips COP.N for the Gulf state’s North Field East expansion, the world’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, following agreements with TotalEnergies TOTF.PA and Eni ENI.MI.

Qatar is partnering with international companies in the first and largest phase of the nearly $30 billion expansion that will boost Qatar’s position as the world’s top LNG exporter.

The companies will form a joint venture that will take a 12.5% stake in North Field East and ConocoPhillips will have a 25% stake in that joint venture.

The arrangement is similar to that announced with Eni and implies a 3.12% stake in the overall North Field East project for ConocoPhillips.

Oil majors have been bidding for four trains – or liquefaction and purification facilities – that comprise the North Field East project.

In all, the North Field Expansion plan includes six LNG trains that will ramp up Qatar’s liquefaction capacity from 77 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) to 126 mtpa by 2027. The fifth and sixth trains are part of a second phase, North Field South.

The North Field is part of the world’s biggest gas field that Qatar shares with Iran, which calls its share South Pars.