QatarEnergy has signed a partnership agreement with China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec) for the North Field South (NFS) expansion project.
The two sides also signed a long-term sales and purchase agreement (SPA) for the delivery of 3 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of LNG from the NFS project to Sinopec’s receiving terminals in China over 27 years.
Under the terms of the partnership agreement, QatarEnergy will transfer a 5 percent interest to Sinopec in a joint venture company that owns the equivalent of 6 MTPY of LNG production capacity in the NFS project.
QatarEnergy said in a statement that “these historic milestones are a testament to the excellent bilateral relations between the People’s Republic of China and the State of Qatar as well as between Sinopec and QatarEnergy.”
The agreements were signed by the Minister of State for Energy Affairs, Mr. Saad bin Sherida al-Kaabi, also the President and CEO of QatarEnergy, and Dr. MA Yong-sheng, Chairman of Sinopec, at a ceremony attended by senior executives from both companies.
According to the statement, this partnership agreement is the second of its kind with Sinopec, following a similar one signed in Doha last April, which marked Sinopec’s entry as a shareholder in one of the North Field East (NFE) joint venture companies that own the NFE project, one of the most critical projects in the global LNG industry.
The agreement will not affect the participating interests of any of the other shareholders. The long-term LNG SPA signed followed another SPA signed in November 2022 for the supply of 4 MTPY of LNG over 27 years, the longest LNG supply agreement in the history of the industry.
