Qatar lifts North Field moratorium

On the eve of Gastech, the world's biggest gas conference, Qatar grabbed headlines with a plan to lift its North Field moratorium and grab more long-term LNG market share. Using our LNG Tool, we look at how this will play out.

With global activity levels and costs low, now is a good time to add new capacity, even if the LNG market does presently look over supplied. By the time new capacity is commissioned, in 5-7 years time, new pre-FID LNG supply is likely to be required in the global market.

It's a signal that Qatar intends to increase its market share, which has been falling as other regions have built new capacity. But it is also a threat to other developers of new capacity worldwide, as Qatar can add new capacity at a lower cost than anybody else. Any development of the North Field is likely to have a strong liquids component.

Saad al-Kaabi, the new CEO of Qatar Petroleum, continues to shake things up. Today's decision follows moves to merge Qatargas and RasGas, re-integrate Qatar Petroleum International and take over Qatar's petroleum product marketing.

Wood Mackenzie is the official knowledge partner of Gastech, the largest global gas and LNG event in 2017. Gastech provides unrivalled and thoughtfully-executed opportunities to meet and do business with people across the industry.