Qatar’s Third Wave of North Gas Field Expansion: Overview and Impact on Global LNG Markets

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On February 25, Qata’s Ninister of State for Energy Affairs, Saad al-Kaabi, who is also Qatar Energy’s CEO, said in a press conference in Doha that a new expansion phase of North Gas Field will add 16 million tons per annum (mtpa) of LNG, to bring Qatar’s total LNG capacity to 142 mtpa by 2030.  The new expansion phase, called North Field West (NFW), comes after successful results of extensive appraisal drilling and testing that productive layers of the massive North Field extend west toward Qatari peninsula.

The new layers confirmed additional reserves of 240 trillion cubic feet (tcf), raising Qatar’s total gas reserves from 1,760 to more than 2,000 tcf. The new discovery also contains more than 10 billion barrels of condensate, raising Qatar’s total condensate reserves to more than 80 billion barrels.  Energy Outlook Advisors (EOA) understand that these figures announced by QatarEnergy’s CEO refer to the total reserves in place which are usually known as initially hydrocarbons (gas or oil) in place. The proven gas reserves are accumulated volumes that can be technically and economically extracted using the existing technology, with an average recovery factor of 70-80%.

Before the recent announcement of the gas discovery to the west of the North Gas Field, Qatar’s proven gas reserves reached 842 tcf as of January 1^st, 2024, marking itself as the third largest reserves holder, according to recent data from Oil and Gas journal. With the new massive discovery, Qatar cements its position among top reserves holders globally and would be able to produce more gas to feed the new expansion phase of 16 mtpa of LNG before the end of the decade as shown in Figure (1).

North Gas Field’s Three Expansion Phases