Qatar has agreed to supply Germany with liquefied natural gas under a long-term deal as the latter continues to seek alternatives to Russian pipeline gas supply.
State-owned QatarEnergy signed deals with ConocoPhillips that will see deliveries of about 2m tons of LNG annually to Germany over 15 years, starting in 2026.
Germany has been working to wean itself from Russian fossil fuel imports, including more than half of its natural gas supply, which used to flow through Nord Stream pipelines.
Europe’s biggest economy has already locked in five floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs), two from Norway’s Höegh LNG, another pair managed by Greece’s Dynagas and one from US-based Excelerate Energy. One privately financed FSRU is also being set up by Deutsche ReGas in the industrial port of Lubmin.
In August, Germany signed a memorandum of understanding with its top utilities Uniper, RWE and EnBW subsidiary VNG to ensure two FSRUs in Wilhelmshaven and Brunsbuettel will be fully supplied from their expected operation launch by the end of this year until March 2024. The gas that will come from ConocoPhillips’ joint ventures in Qatar will be delivered to Brunsbuttel FSRU. When operational, the six floating regasification terminals are expected to cover around one-third of Germany’s current gas demand.
Qatar’s deal with US-based ConocoPhillips comes hot on the heels of one of the longest LNG supply agreements to date QatarEnergy penned with China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec). China agreed to buy 4m tons of LNG over a 27-year period, with deliveries beginning in 2026.
