Final Decision on Golden Pass Soon: Al-Kaabi
Qatar Petroleum will soon take a final investment decision (FID) on the Golden Pass LNG export terminal project, CEO Saad Sherida al-Kaabi said December 16 at an event in Doha.
"We are contemplating on moving forward with our partners. We are at the final stages of assessing that. The final investment decision should be coming in the next few weeks to months," Al-Kaabi, who also is Qatar’s energy minister, said.
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The Golden Pass LNG terminal near Sabine Pass, Texas, is a joint venture formed by affiliates of Qatar Petroleum (70%), ExxonMobil (17.6%) and ConocoPhillips (12.4%). The project has been cleared by the US government to export to non-Free Trade Agreement countries. Golden Pass is therefore authorised to export up to 2.21bn ft3/d (16.5mn metric tons/yr) of LNG.
ExxonMobil told NGW in October that the FID would be taken this year.
Golden Pass was originally built as a giant LNG import facility to channel Qatari imports into the US Gulf Coast, but is now to be entirely reinvented as a liquefaction and export venture.
Al-Kaabi said that Qatar will be investing $20bn in the US energy space in the next five years. "North of $20bn will be invested over the next five years in the US in different projects. In the US we have positions in upstream, both conventional and unconventional. We believe the country has huge potential," he said.
Qatar is also investing heavily in ramping up its LNG production capacity. Earlier this year, Qatar Petroleum said it will increase its output by around 43% to 110mn mt/yr, from today's 77mn mt/yr. Al-Kaabi said in Doha that the foreign partners required to scale up the output for the new LNG train will be announced by mid-2019.
QP farms into Mexico Area 1 project
In other news, QP's al-Kaabi and Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi on December 16 signed an agreement whereby Eni will farm out a 35% interest in its Area 1 offshore Mexico subject to the authorities there. Eni as operator is targeting a development on Area 1 with 90,000 b/d oil and 65mn ft3/d gas, with production starting 2021; it took the final investment decision on the $2bn development in the past week. Eni (as operator with 65%) and QP are already partners in Mexican deepwater block 24.