May 20, 2025 at 1:53 PM GMT+4

Qatar plans to significantly boost its liquefied natural gas trading business to complement its expanding domestic production of the super-chilled fuel.

QatarEnergy set up a trading unit a few years ago, which is already handling 10 million tons of physical LNG annually, more than 50% of which is non-Qatari volumes, Energy Minister Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi said at the Qatar Economic Forum Tuesday.

“The ambition is by 2030 to reach somewhere in the range 30-40 million tons of non-Qatari LNG traded by our trading group,” Al-Kaabi, who is also chief executive officer at QatarEnergy, said.

The world’s second-biggest LNG producer typically sells its own output through long-term contracts. Some spot cargoes from Qatar are sold via QatarEnergy’s trading business, which also buys and sells third-party volumes. As global demand for LNG grows, flexible and short-term volumes allow sellers and buyers to quickly react to market volatility.

“What we saw is that there was money left on the table,” Al-Kaabi said. Traders from around the world “would buy our cargoes and make money off it. And we have the capability and can actually establish a trading organization and we did.”

Qatar is also expanding its own production from 77 million tons now to 160 million tons of LNG, both domestically as well as at its project in the US. The company has 70 ships today and is adding 128 more, as not all volumes will be locked in long-term contracts, Al-Kaabi said.

The expansion plan includes LNG exports from the North Field East project, by the middle of 2026, he said in an interview earlier Tuesday. In the US, QatarEnergy has a majority stake in the Golden Pass project, which is nearing the start of operations.

Al-Kaabi said there is room for growing supply from the US, the world’s top-LNG producer, as well as Qatar. US volumes typically go to Europe and South America and Qatari LNG will predominately serve Asia.

Qatar is bullish on global demand for the fuel. The need for the fuel and electricity is rising globally with population growth and the expansion of artificial intelligence, Al-Kaabi said

“We need all that volume,” he said. “The need for electricity and power is huge. So we are not worried at all about having a supply glut or anything like that.”

QatarEnergy is discussing sales of additional volumes with buyers in China and India, as well as counterparts in other countries, he said. Still, the talks can be long-drawn.

“You always have sticking points with all negotiations,” he said. “Everybody wants a better price deal from both sides.”

The government of the State of Qatar is the underwriter of the Qatar Economic Forum, Powered by Bloomberg.