QatarEnergy in talks with Japan about long -term LNG supply agreements

One of the largest suppliers of liquid natural gas in the world, Qatarenergy, is in talks with Japanese companies for long -term agreements to supply LNG from the northern field expansion project, five sources of trade and industry told Reuters.

Under the agreement, Qatar will supply the consortium of Japanese importers, and the volume of at least 3 million metric tons per year will be divided between them, four sources said.

If agreed upon, it will help to confirm the dominance of Doha which has been in age several decades in the Japanese market, because competition increased from the United States and from the Suppliers of the Gulf of Neighborhoods, the United Arab Emirates and Oman, which offers more flexible contract requirements.

This will also be the first agreement since Reuters reported in October that Qatar found it difficult to approve the agreement of the term LNG with East Asian buyers in Japan and South Korea due to competition.

Buyers in talks with Qatarenergy include deterrent, the largest electric generator in Japan and Mitsui & Co 8031 ​​trading house, said four sources, who refused to be identified because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Qatarenergy did not immediately respond to Reuters’ comments requests, while Jera said that was in discussions with various suppliers for the procurement of LNG. It acknowledged Qatar as an important supplier, but said it would not express specific details of the discussion.

In the revenue briefing on Monday, an executive of a deterrent said the company needs to diversify its supply sources.

“Asia-Oceania currently contributes more than half of our procurement sources. For supply stability, expanding options to areas such as North America and the Middle East will be useful,” Naohiro Maekawa, Head of Financial Strategies and Planning Division, said.

When asked whether the company was in a conversation with QatarEnergy for a long -term LNG contract, Mitsui said that he was in discussion with various sellers to ensure a stable LNG supply, but would not provide details of individual discussions.

Northern field expansion

Qatar was the third largest LNG exporter globally after the US and Australia last year, exporting 79.54 million metric Tons of LNG in 2024, according to data from the KPler’s analytic company.

Middle Eastern countries plan 85% expansion in LNG output from 77 million tons of North Field at this time per year to 142 MTPA in 2030, from 126 MTPA expected previously.

Japan is the second largest LNG buyer in the world after China, with trading data showing imports of 65.89 million tons of fuel last year.

Qatar was among the three top Japanese LNG suppliers a decade ago, shipping more than 15-16 MTPA to East Asia between 2012-2014.

The surge followed the support of Qatar in increasing LNG exports after the 2011 earthquake and the tsunami triggered Fukushima’s nuclear disaster, which led to a gradual closing of all Japanese nuclear reactors.

But the volume has shrunk, because Japanese nuclear reactors slowly start again. The deterrent also chose not to update her long -term contract with Qatar for 5.5 MTPA, which expired at the end of 2021. Qatar exported only under 3 million tons to Japan last year, KPler’s data showed.

A senior executive Jera told Reuters in January that his company planned to increase LNG purchases from the United States to diversify its supply and meet the growth of demand driven by the data center and AI and also planned to talk to suppliers in the Middle East to help diversify its suppliers.
Source: Reuters