Qatar will award the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts related to onshore facilities of North Field Expansion before the year-end, said HE the Minister of State for Energy Affairs, Saad Sherida al-Kaabi.
“We are in the tendering phase (of the EPC) for the main onshore facility. By the year-end, we expect everything to be in place. People look at EPC as the final investment decision for onshore. But we have already taken a decision that we will proceed with the project,” al-Kaabi said at a press conference at the Ritz Carlton Monday.
North Field Expansion project includes setting up four mega LNG trains that would expand the State of Qatar’s LNG production from 77mn tonnes per year to 110mn tonnes by 2024.
Qatargas has been entrusted with executing this mega-project on behalf of QP. As the World’s Premier LNG Company, Qatargas has a well-proven track record of delivering such major projects and in operating various onshore and offshore facilities in the North Field with world-class reliability and operational excellence.
Al-Kaabi said, “Regarding North Field Expansion, we have been awarding contracts…we will not award eight rigs and platforms, just for fun. We are very serious about North Field expansion…it is going very well.”
He said, “The wells we have tested have surpassed our expectations. We are well on our track to deliver on our promise of first gas (from North Field Expansion) by the end of 2023 or early 2024.”
On the joint venture establishment (for North Field Expansion), the minister said, “As I mentioned in the past, we could go either 100% QP or go with partners. We are probably going to give a chance to few of our partners to participate in the bidding process, similar to the one we did in chemicals. If we get something that we like, we will choose some of the partners. If we don’t, then we will go 100% QP.”
Last month Qatar Petroleum said the drilling programme planned for the eight rigs was a major component of the expansion project to increase Qatar’s LNG production capacity from 77mn tonnes per year to 110mn tpy.
The scope includes the drilling and completion of some 80 new wells from eight wellhead platform locations. Contract awards for jacket fabrication were already made earlier in April 2019.
Earlier, QP had said the new production from the North Field, which is the largest non-associated natural gas field in the world, was expected within five to seven years. 
Qatar’s plan is to develop an export-oriented gas project in the North Field.