China’s Sinopec to Take 5% Share in Qatar’s North Field East

Residents walk along Doha's Corniche beneath the city's skyscrapers. (Getty Images)
Residents walk along Doha's Corniche beneath the city's skyscrapers. (Getty Images)
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China’s Sinopec to Take 5% Share in Qatar’s North Field East

Residents walk along Doha's Corniche beneath the city's skyscrapers. (Getty Images)
Residents walk along Doha's Corniche beneath the city's skyscrapers. (Getty Images)

China's state-owned oil and gas giant Sinopec will take a 5% stake in Qatar's North Field East expansion, part of the world's largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, state news agency QNA reported on Wednesday.

QatarEnergy had said previously that it could give up to a 5% stake in the project to some buyers, which QatarEnergy CEO Saad al-Kaabi called "value-added partners".

Last November, Sinopec signed a deal in which QatarEnergy agreed to supply 4 million tons of LNG annually for 27 years, the longest LNG contract ever signed by Qatar.

At the time, Sinopec said the agreement was part of an "integrated partnership", which indicated the Chinese firm could be considering acquiring a stake in Qatar's North Field expansion export facility.

QatarEnergy last year signed five deals for North Field East, the first and larger phase of the two-phase North Field expansion plan, which includes six LNG trains that will ramp up Qatar's liquefaction capacity to 126 million tons per year by 2027 from 77 million tons.

It also signed three partnership agreements on the Gulf Arab state's North Field South expansion.

QatarEnergy has said it plans to retain a 75% stake overall in the North Field expansion which will cost at least $30 billion, including construction of liquefaction export facilities.

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



Eight OPEC+ Alliance Members Move toward Output Hike at Meeting

FILE PHOTO: OPEC logo is seen in this illustration taken, October 8, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: OPEC logo is seen in this illustration taken, October 8, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo
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Eight OPEC+ Alliance Members Move toward Output Hike at Meeting

FILE PHOTO: OPEC logo is seen in this illustration taken, October 8, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: OPEC logo is seen in this illustration taken, October 8, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo

Saudi Arabia, Russia and six other key members of the OPEC+ alliance will discuss crude production on Saturday, with analysts expecting the latest in a series of output hikes for August.

The wider OPEC+ group -- comprising the 12-nation Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies -- began output cuts in 2022 in a bid to prop up prices.

But in a policy shift, eight alliance members surprised markets by announcing they would significantly raise production from May, sending oil prices plummeting.

Oil prices have been hovering around a low $65-$70 per barrel.

Representatives of Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria and Oman will take part in Saturday's meeting, expected to be held by video.

Analysts expect the so-called "Voluntary Eight" (V8) nations to decide on another output increase of 411,000 barrels per day (bpd) -- the same target approved for May, June and July.

The group has placed an "increased focus on regaining market shares over price stability," said Saxo Bank analyst Ole Hansen.

Enforcing quotas

The group will likely justify its decision by officially referring to "low inventories and solid demand as reasons for the faster unwind of the production cuts", UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo told AFP.

But the failure of some OPEC member countries, such as Kazakhstan, to stick to their output quotas, is "a factor supporting the decision", he added.

According to Jorge Leon, an analyst at Rystad Energy, an output hike of 411,000 bpd will translate into "around 250,000 or 300,000" actual barrels.

An estimate by Bloomberg showed that the alliance's production increased by only 200,000 bpd in May, despite doubling the quotas.

No effect from Israel-Iran war

Analysts expect no major effect on current oil prices, as another output hike is widely anticipated.

The meeting comes after a 12-day conflict between Iran and Israel, which briefly sent prices above $80 a barrel amid concerns over a possible closing of the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for about one-fifth of the world's oil supply.

As fears of a wider Middle East conflict have eased, and given there "were no supply disruptions so far", the war is "unlikely to impact the decision" of the alliance, Staunovo added.

The Israel-Iran conflict "if anything supports a continued rapid production increase in the unlikely event Iran's ability to produce and export get disrupted," Hansen told AFP.