Qatar Petroleum’s North Field Expansion project will continue “full steam ahead,” said Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, minister of state for energy affairs and president and chief executive officer of Qatar Petroleum, during a webinar organized by the US-Qatar Business Council as noted on the company website May 22.
The project is expected to raise Qatar’s LNG production capacity by 2025 to 110 million tonnes/year from 77 million tpy and boost it again to 126 million tpy by 2027, he said, adding that the final onshore commercial bids will be received by September and that contracts will be awarded by the end of the year.
A number of milestones in the project have begun, including the start of a drilling campaign for 80 development wells, installation of offshore well head jackets, and the reservation of capacity to build LNG ships that would ensure meeting Qatar’s future LNG fleet requirements, Minister Al-Kaabi said.
The first of the development wells from eight wellhead platform locations was spudded Mar. 29 (OGJ Online, Apr. 15, 2020).
Minister Al-Kaabi said Qatar Petroleum is planning greater international upstream expansion and will continue farming-in and acquiring promising exploration blocks around the world with major players.
Asked by webinar participants—representing council members and partners in the US and Qatar—if Qatar would be forced to reduce production due to the price drop, Minister Al-Kaabi said: “In such a scenario of forced production curtailment because of Price, many other producers will be forced to shut down before Qatar due to their high production cost, therefore there is absolutely no way that we would curtail production.”
Addressing a question about cost reduction, he said the company will reduce its capital and operating expenses by 30% in June.