Qatar Petroleum said Tuesday it wouldn't be renewing its Qatargas 1 LNG joint venture with Total, ExxonMobil, Marubeni, and Mitsui.

Upon the expiry of the relevant joint venture agreements on December 31, 2021, Qatar Petroleum will become the sole owner of 100% of the Qatargas assets and facilities.

Established in 1984, Qatargas 1 is a joint venture between Qatar Petroleum and affiliates of Total, ExxonMobil, Marubeni, and Mitsui.

"QG1 was the pioneering LNG project to be developed in Qatar, whose success has paved the way for the development of Qatar’s LNG industry, leading to where it stands today," Qatar Petroleum said.

Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, the Minister of State for Energy Affairs, the President and CEO of Qatar Petroleum, said: “The takeover by Qatar Petroleum will conclude more than 25 years of successful operations of [Qatargas], from which the first-ever Qatari LNG cargo was exported. This is a momentous event that highlights Qatar Petroleum’s efforts to further enhance the utilization of our natural resources for the benefit of our country and its current and future generations as well as to continue serving the world’s need for cleaner energy.”

Al-Kaabi added, “I would like to thank our valued partners, Total, ExxonMobil, Marubeni and Mitsui for their efforts in the development and operation of QG1 over the past three decades. Each one of them has played an instrumental role in the success of [Qatargas 1].

"In particular, I would like to express my sincere thanks and appreciation to Total, for being a foundation shareholder from inception and for their valuable contributions throughout this journey; to ExxonMobil, for stepping in at a critical juncture of the project and leveraging their experience to help making the project a reality; and to Mitsui and Marubeni for their valuable contributions in securing anchor offtakes for the project and for their great support during the early phases.

"Thanks, and appreciation are also due to Chubu Electric, QG1’s foundation customer, for their key role in anchoring this project as the primary LNG buyer as well as to the other Japanese buyers and, of course, the country of Japan as a whole. Furthermore, I would also like to sincerely thank QatarGas operating company leadership and employees for their excellent work and dedication that made this company a success over the last 25 years”

Al-Kaabi concluded his remarks by saying, “This event marks the start of the next chapter in [Qatargas 1's] history, which we hope and believe will be even more successful than the last chapter, and we look forward to serving our customers for the next three decades from this world-class asset.”

"With a production capacity of approximately 10 million tons per annum of LNG, [Qatargas 1] facilities will continue to be operated by Qatargas on behalf of Qatar Petroleum and will play an important role in supplying LNG to the world’s markets in a safe and reliable manner," Qatar Petroleum said.

Source - www.oedigital.com