QatarEnergy announced Monday that it had awarded a major engineering, procurement, construction, and installation contract to McDermott Middle East for the offshore scope of its North Field Expansion Project.
The North Field Expansion Project will increase Qatar’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) production capacity significantly, from 77 million tons per annum to 126 million tons per annum. LNG is first expected to come from the expansion in 2025.
“The award of this major EPCI contract is a momentous milestone that demonstrates QatarEnergy’s commitment to delivering our LNG expansion projects on time and to ensure the significant additional global LNG demand is catered for in a timely manner. This contract also reinforces our excellent relationship with McDermott. We are confident that the effective collaboration between QatarEnergy, Qatargas and McDermott will result in the safe and successful delivery of the project according to plan,” Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, the Minister of State for Energy Affairs, the President & CEO of QatarEnergy said in a statement.
The contract’s scope includes 13 normally unmanned wellhead platforms topsides, as well as pipelines, beach valve stations and buildings. The jackets and the pipelines for the North Field South part of the project will be subject to a separate tender and is expected to be awarded in the first half of 2022.
“I would like to take this opportunity to express my thanks and appreciation to Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa Al Thani, the CEO of Qatargas, and to both the Qatargas and QatarEnergy teams for their significant efforts and contributions that resulted in the successful and timely execution of this contract,” Al-Kaabi added.
Qatar is one of the world’s most important LNG providers. In 2021, QatarEnergy was found to have signed the biggest long-term liquefied natural gas (LNG) contract of the year with CNOOC in September 2021, a report by GlobalData revealed in December.