In This Article We Will Be Discussing on How Nigeria Watches as Qatar Reaps Big on Lng Expansion Bet and How This Will Impact on Global Projects.
Nigeria, once Africa’s top liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter, is watching enviously as Qatar reaps the rewards of its long-held bet on expanding its LNG capacity. President Bola Tinubu, who took the helm of Africa’s biggest economy just over 10 months ago, is on a state visit in Qatar, as part of efforts to drive up investments in the country. Tinubu told investors at the Nigeria-Qatar business and investment forum in Doha, that Africa’s largest economy is ready for serious business, pledging to remove all bottlenecks hindering profitable and legitimate enterprise.
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As President Tinubu tries to lure investors, fresh findings have revealed Qatar, a small peninsular nation neighboring Saudi Arabia, has emerged as a dominant player in the global LNG market, thanks to its foresight in investing heavily in expanding its LNG production capacity over the past two decades. Qatar’s planned expansion of liquefied natural gas (LNG) production could see it control nearly 25 per cent share of the global market by 2030 and squeeze out competitor projects including in Nigeria’s LNG, according to market experts.
Qatar, one of the world’s top LNG exporters, plans an 85 per cent expansion in LNG output from its North Field’s current 77 million metric tons per year (mtpa) to 142 mtpa by 2030, from previously expected 126 mtpa. “Non-associated gas fields is one of Qatar’s strengths, Qatar has the largest non-associated gas fields in the World even ahead of Australia and the US, Most of Nigeria’s Natural Gas comes from Associated gas trapped from well-heads when drilling crude oil,” Kelvin Emmanuel, co-Founder, CEO at Dairy Hills said. “Please what are the Ministers doing? Have you seen their plan?” he asked.
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Some market experts said that the move by Qatar will have an impact on global projects in the US, East Africa, and elsewhere which require financing and long-term customer commitments to reach a final investment decision, given the Gulf state’s edge as the world’s lowest cost producer. The world’s top energy companies including Exxon Mobil, Shell, TotalEnergies and ConocoPhillips have played a central role in Qatar’s LNG industry for decades. They all hold stakes in existing production facilities and in recent years acquired stakes in the new expansion phases, offering cash in exchange for LNG volumes.