QatarEnergy has signed an agreement to supply liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Bangladesh's state firm PetroBangla for 15 years beginning in 2026, Saad al-Kaabi, chief executive at the Qatari state company said on Thursday.
LNG buyers are looking for long-term supply to secure gas from Qatar's massive expansion projects to insulate themselves from volatile spot prices.
Bangladesh, in particular, was one of the South Asian economies most hit by the soaring LNG spot prices and withdrew from the spot market last year, alongside other buyers such as India and Pakistan.
Even some governments in Europe-including Germany's-which were reluctant to sign long-term deals before the energy crisis due to emissions concerns, are now open to such deals.
"If a European is actually negotiating with me and has an issue, he will tell me 'I have an issue with duration,' I've not heard that," QatarEnergy's al-Kaabi said at a news conference, as quoted by Reuters.
The deal with Bangladesh is the latest long-term agreement for LNG from Qatar's future North Field East (NFE) and North Field South (NFS) expansion projects.
"The majority (of LNG exports) will be going to Asia and the other will be going to Europe and we'll be more than sold out as far as volumes of NFE and NFS," QatarEnergy's top executive said.
In April, QatarEnergy said it would transfer to China's Sinopec a 5% stake in the development of the huge NFE expansion project, the largest project in the history of the LNG industry. The Qatari company picked last year TotalEnergies, Shell, and ConocoPhillips as partners to hold minority stakes in the NFE and NFS expansion projects.
Qatar announced in 2021 the world's largest LNG project, which is set to raise its LNG production capacity from 77 million tons per annum (mmtpa) to 110 mmtpa.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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