Sawt Falasteen - Qatar eyes more long-term gas supply deals this year

The minister, who is also chief executive of QatarEnergy, said the state-owned giant had secured sales of 25 million tonnes of liquified natural gas (LNG) in the past year and expected to be "signing more this year."

"It's just agreeing on terms and conditions and pricing... but I think there's a huge demand out there, whether it's from Asia or Europe," Kaabi told the Qatar Economic Forum.

"I think even Europe is realising now they have to do something different to secure long term," he added.

Qatar is one of the world's top LNG producers alongside the United States, Australia and Russia.

Asian countries led by China, Japan and South Korea have been the main market for Qatari gas, but demand from European countries has grown since Russia's war on Ukraine threw supplies into doubt.

In February, Qatar announced plans to expand output from its North Field, saying they would boost capacity to 142 million tonnes per year before 2030.

Kaabi said there could be further expansions to the emirate's LNG production capacity.

"The technical capability of doing more in Qatar is going to be assessed in the future and, if there is more, we probably will do more," he said.

In recent months, Qatar has inked LNG deals with France's Total, Britain's Shell, India's Petronet, China's Sinopec and Italy's Eni among others.

Z.Ramadan--SF-PST