France to receive gas from Qatar under a 27-year deal

Qatar has signed a 27-year gas supply agreement with French energy company TotalEnergies.

The agreement was announced by Qatar’s state energy company QatarEnergy, France24 reports.

As part of the agreement, Qatar will supply 4.8 billion cubic meters of gas per year to France after signing two contracts with TotalEnergies last year for a share in a major project to expand the North Field gas field in the Persian Gulf country.

Gas supplies to southern France are expected to begin in 2026.

“These two new agreements we have signed with TotalEnergies demonstrate our continued commitment to the European markets in general and the French market in particular, contributing to France’s energy security,” said Qatar’s Energy Minister Saad Al-Kaabi.

After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year, European countries are trying to replace lost natural gas supplies after Russia’s withdrawal from the market.

As part of the expansion of the North Field, the world’s largest natural gas field stretching from the Persian Gulf to Iran, Qatar intends to increase its liquefied natural gas (LNG) production by 60% or more to 126 million tons per year by 2027.

According to Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman of TotalEnergies, the expansion of the field will ensure energy security. According to Qatar Energy, North Field contains about 10% of the world’s known natural gas reserves.

It was reported that Moldova would start importing 2 million cubic meters of gas from Turkey every day beginning in October.

Before that, the Norwegian energy group Equinor signed a five-year gas supply agreement with Austria’s OMV as part of Vienna’s strategy to diversify fuel supplies.

Earlier, Spanish Energy Minister Teresa Ribera said that the EU has no short-term plan to ban Russian liquefied natural gas despite the rapid growth of its imports to the European Union.