- Qatar's announced plan to raise liquefied natural gas production by 30% to 100M metric tons/year - equivalent to a third of current global supplies - within the next 5-7 years comes just after Iran signed a deal with Total (NYSE:TOT) and China's CNPC (NYSE:PTR) to produce gas from the South Pars field it shares with Qatar.
- Bernstein analyst Neil Beveridge says Qatar's move to raise output "could be a response to Total restarting development work" on Iran's side of the gas reserves.
- With low production costs and infrastructure already in place, Qatar is well placed to come out on top in an LNG price war, analysts say.
- Energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie says Qatar's low cost LNG expansion is "pushing a lot of new projects out of the market" - the main producers challenged by the move are those who have yet to attract a final investment decision, especially in the U.S., where so far only Cheniere Energy (NYSEMKT:LNG) exports LNG but there are proposals with a total capacity of 150M metric tons/year.
- ETFs: UNG, UGAZ, DGAZ, BOIL, GAZ, KOLD, UNL, DCNG, GAZB
- Now read: Cheniere's Contract Faces A GAIL
Original article