by Andrew Mills and Maha El Dahan

DOHA (Reuters) – Qatar is set to sign a new mega liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply deal with a Chinese state-owned company, the second in less than a year, sources told Reuters on Tuesday. close to the file.

China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and QatarEnergy are due to sign a 27-year agreement later today for China to purchase 4 million tonnes of LNG per year from Qatar, two sources said.

CNPC will also take a stake in the eastern expansion of Qatar’s North Field LNG project, the sources said.

CNPC and QatarEnergy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Last November, QatarEnergy also announced a 27-year agreement to supply Chinese group Sinopec with LNG.

The agreement to be announced on Tuesday with CNPC, initially reported by the Financial Times, will be the third LNG supply contract signed by QatarEnergy with an Asian buyer.

Qatar, which is already the world’s largest LNG exporter, is facing an explosion in demand, not only in China, but also in Europe which has had to deal with the interruption of Russian natural gas deliveries amid tensions. geopolitics around the war in Ukraine.

The largest natural gas field in the world, located between Qatari and Iranian territorial waters, is called North Field for the Qatari part and South Pars for the Iranian part.

Qatar is currently carrying out two North Field expansion projects for which it has signed participation agreements with several Western oil majors, including TotalEnergies.

(Reporting Andrew Mills in Doha, Maha El Dahan in Dubai and Kanjyik Ghosh in Bangalore, written by Andrew Mills; Blandine Hénault for the , editing by Kate Entringer)

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