QatarEnergy and Eni have agreed to provide up to one million tons of liquefied natural gas to Italy each year. The state-owned petroleum business said that it will provide LNG to the energy giant for the next 27 years, commencing in 2026.
The gas will be sourced through their joint venture, which holds an interest in Qatar’s North Field East expansion project. LNG will be delivered to FSRU Italia, a floating storage and regasification unit located in the port of Piombino in Italy’s Tuscany region, as per arab news.
“Today, we are taking another important step in strengthening our partnership with Eni that will foster our cooperation for many years to come,” said Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, Qatar’s minister of state for energy affairs.
Al-Kaabi, who is also the president and CEO of QatarEnergy, added: “This agreement further builds on Eni’s first entry in the upstream sector in the state of Qatar through our partnership in the historic North Field East expansion project.”
Qatar has been one of Italy's most important LNG suppliers. Qatari LNG has been arriving at the Adriatic LNG facility in the northern Adriatic since 2009, meeting more than 10% of Italy's natural gas consumption. Earlier this month, QatarEnergy signed a new contract with TotalEnergies of France to deliver up to 3.5 million tons of LNG per year for the next 27 years.
QatarEnergy said that LNG quantities to France will be obtained through their two joint ventures with TotalEnergies, both of which have stakes in Qatar's northeastern oil resources. Mitsui & Co., a Japanese trading firm, announced earlier this month that it is exploring purchasing a share in Qatar's North Field LNG expansion project to assure a steady supply of LNG.