QatarEnergy signs 15-year gas deal with Bangladesh firm

DOHA: QatarEnergy signed a 15-year deal on Thursday to supply liquefied natural gas to Bangladesh’s state-owned gas company Petrobangla.

The state-owned hydrocarbon giant will supply 1.5 million tonnes annually starting in January 2026, the Qatari firm said at the signing ceremony in Doha.

“It can reach up to 1.8” million tonnes annually under the contractual arrangement, said Qatari Energy Minister Saad Sherida al-Kaabi, who is also head of QatarEnergy.

He said the gas could come from the North Field project which holds the world’s biggest natural gas reserves and extends beneath the Gulf into Iranian territory.

QatarEnergy currently supplies Bangladesh with more than 3.5 million tonnes of LNG per annum, Kaabi said.

“We are proud to be the largest LNG supplier to Bangladesh and Petrobangla,” he told a press conference.

“These supply arrangements reinforce our unwavering dedication to safeguarding the energy security of valued customers”.

Qatar is one of the world’s top LNG producers alongside the United States, Australia and Russia.

Asian countries led by China, Japan and South Korea have been the main market for Qatari gas, but demand has also risen in European countries since Russia’s war on Ukraine threw supplies into doubt.

In November, Qatar announced its first major deal to deliver liquefied natural gas to Germany.

On Thursday, Kaabi said Qatar expected to sign more deals with European countries in the coming months.

“We are going to sign European deals after the summer,” he told reporters, adding the agreements with “several European destinations… are very close to being finalised”.

Qatari gas is among the cheapest to produce and has fuelled an economic boom in the tiny Gulf emirate that has become one of the world’s wealthiest countries.