Forty per cent of all the new LNG that will come to the market by 2029 is going to be from QatarEnergy, HE the Minister of State for Energy Affairs Saad Sherida al-Kaabi has said. Al-Kaabi, was speaking during a “Leadership Dialogue” held as part of the 20th International Conference & Exhibition on Liquefied Natural Gas, which is currently taking place in Vancouver, Canada. The minister, also the President and CEO of QatarEnergy, said that as the world grows, “gas will always be needed as the cleanest fossil fuel for the base-load required for electricity production and for powering industrial and manufacturing factories.” Minister Al-Kaabi also gave an overview of QatarEnergy’s efforts to deal with the energy trilemma of security of supply, affordability, and sustainability by providing the world with the cleaner energy it needs for a responsible energy transition.
“We have to have a balance between what we need for humanity and how we can manage it properly. And if you look at what we are doing in Qatar, we are increasing production to 126mn tons per year (MTPY) and we have another 16-18 MTPY out of the US coming online next year. We are doing it in the most responsible way as far as emissions are concerned with CO2 sequestration,” al-Kaabi added. Focusing on Qatar’s role in this effort, Minister al-Kaabi said, “Qatar has the largest sequestration site in the MENA region today. We are injecting more than 2MTPY of sequestered CO2 today and we are going to go to 11MTPY in a few years. We are using solar power to power some of our new LNG production. Qatar’s LNG carbon intensity is probably the lowest in the world. So we are doing it in a very responsible fashion and we are reducing emissions.”
In discussing energy transition, al-Kaabi called for a responsible dialogue and to be realistic about what we can achieve, adding that demonising oil and gas has resulted in sizeable declines in investments in the sector. Al-Kaabi said, “On average, there was a 25% reduction of investment over the past ten years from a normal investment cycle that we would expect. Today, the only reason we are not seeing this affecting the market tremendously is a globally warm winter in 2022-2023 and the filled storage in Europe. But that storage is not going to be replenished easily and investments are still not coming in as we think it should.” “People talk about transition and the need to stop oil and gas and forget that we can’t be selfish by calling to cancel oil and gas when you have a billion people that are deprived of the basic electricity that we all enjoy every day. And by 2050 you’re going to have north of 2bn people coming on earth that need energy, and more people in the developing nations will need better standards of living, which means energy.” Minister Al-Kaabi also discussed Qatar’s bold gas investments and said: “When we took our investments decision a few years back there were a lot of people doubting our move saying we don’t not need that kind of an investment and that kind of volume. And I think people realise now the need for the oil and gas in general.” Concluding the “Leadership Dialogue”, minister al-Kaabi voiced excitement and pride in the men and women working and developing in the industry, saying: “I am very proud of everybody that we have. We have so many men and women working in our energy companies, and I attribute our success to the great leaderships in our companies and to the great employees that are very dedicated to what they are doing. That’s why we are successful.” The LNG Conference and Exhibition is held every three years alternating between exporting and importing countries. Qatar, the LNG capital of the world, will host the next event in 2026, coinciding with the historic start-up of the North Field LNG expansion project and the commissioning of one of the largest Carbon Capture and Storage schemes in the world. The four-day event is organised by the International Gas Union, the Gas Technology Institute, and the International Institute of Refrigeration, and is considered as the premier event for the world’s LNG industry, featuring the largest number of high-level LNG industry leaders as plenary speakers.
