QatarEnergy Adds 4 Million Tonnes a Year in US LNG Deals With Cheniere
Two long-term purchase agreements will bring Gulf Coast cargoes to QatarEnergy from 2031 through 2054, signed as the company builds a trading arm.
QatarEnergy has locked in up to 4 million tonnes a year of US LNG through two long-term purchase agreements with Cheniere Energy. Deliveries begin in 2031 and continue through 2054.
Cargoes will be lifted at Cheniere's terminal in Louisiana and its export plant in Texas, both on the Gulf Coast. The contracts are free-on-board, so QatarEnergy charters the vessels and absorbs shipping and downstream risk itself from the point of loading.
Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, Qatar's Minister of State for Energy Affairs and the company's president and CEO, signed for QatarEnergy. Jack Fusco, Cheniere's chairman, president and CEO, signed for the US producer.
Al-Kaabi framed the agreements as a way to broaden QatarEnergy's global LNG book, sit alongside volumes it already supplies, and give it room to serve buyers whose needs shift over time.
The signing follows remarks he made last month at the Qatar Economic Forum in New York, where he said QatarEnergy is assembling a large LNG trading organisation and expects to rank as the world's biggest LNG trader "by far" in the near future.
Earlier this month, at the 17th International Energy Forum Ministerial Meeting in Riyadh, he argued that pipeline transport cannot carry LNG in liquefied form. Moving the fuel by pipe would mean turning it back into gas and reliquefying it at receiving terminals, which would double up on infrastructure Qatar is already building.
He also urged governments to keep energy security clear of political conflict, to guard energy assets and to preserve the free flow of supply. "Energy security must unite us, not divide us. It must be protected, not weaponized," he said.
Energy security must unite us, not divide us. It must be protected, not weaponized,
Al-Kaabi warned that regional conflict cut off roughly 20% of global hydrocarbon supplies and caused wide damage to energy infrastructure, showing how exposed international markets are to geopolitical risk.
For QatarEnergy, the US volumes arrive years after its own North Field expansion lifts domestic output, giving it supply from two basins at once. Free-on-board terms matter for a company that intends to trade rather than simply deliver: the cargoes can be redirected, swapped or resold depending on where prices are highest.
