Satyendra Pathak
Doha
At the Qatar Economic Forum, Minister of State for Energy Affairs and QatarEnergy President and CEO HE Saad Sherida Al Kaabi said that Qatar’s LNG expansion projects are progressing towards an increased production capacity of 142 million tonnes per annum.
He said that with 18 million tonnes per annum coming from our LNG project in Texas, Qatar will be doubling its LNG production capacity in the next few years.
He emphasised the importance of these expansion projects in meeting the rising global demand for cleaner energy due to economic growth and population increases. Al Kaabi highlighted the necessity of ensuring access to affordable power for the anticipated additional 1.5 to 2 billion people over the next few decades.
Furthermore, Al Kaabi addressed doubts about the future of LNG, pointing to its sustained demand, backed by support from entities like the G7. He also dismissed past skepticism regarding Qatar’s expansion plans, noting substantial long-term LNG sales contracts have been secured, with more expected.
Regarding the energy transition, Al Kaabi criticised politicians for making unrealistic promises without understanding the complexities involved. He stressed the need for more practical targets and strategies to navigate the transition effectively.
Stressing that LNG will remain in demand for a very long time, he said, “LNG is not going away any anytime soon, as was recently made clear by the G7 as well as by many countries around the world, who have changed their position of moving away from fossil fuels.”
Al Kaabi criticised last year’s media skepticism of Qatar’s ambitious expansion projects and reports saying it will have difficulty selling its LNG.
He said, “I can report that since then, we have secured 25 million tonnes of long-term LNG sales and I can tell you also on this podium that we are signing more this year.”
As for Qatar’s criteria for choosing energy projects partners, His Excellency said that they are based on trust, transparency, and mutual benefit.
The Minister pointed out that Qatar was among the first countries to carry out oil and has explorations, adding that many more will be conducted in Qatar and Mozambique through Qatar’s partnership with TotalEnergies and ExxonMobil.
TotalEnergies Chairman and CEO Patrick Pouyanne and ExxonMobil Executive Chair and CEO Darren Woods also took part in the panel discussion.
Pouyanne said that the world today needs to investment more in the energy sector despite being in a transitional phase towards renewables, underscoring LNG’s role in this phase.
He added that it is imperative to be realistic with regards to the energy transition, as demand for hydrocarbons increase last year, a demand that TotalEnergies is able to supply.
Pouyanne said that it is important to reduce the cost of energy fuel extraction, highlighting the huge cost variance between Europe and the US.
For his part, ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods said that supply and demand in the energy sector is linked to economic growth, moreover, he also underscored LNG’s role in the energy transition.
Discussing the energy transition, Kaabi said, “Many promises were made by politicians, who do not understand the details of how to achieve this transition. And it was driven to a point where it became in vogue for everybody to say ‘net zero, environmental, and green’, which got them elected. But now, as reality sets in five or six years later, they say we cannot achieve what we have promised. The problem is that targets were overstretched and could not have been reached anyway.”
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