Qatar’s first North Field East LNG train to be ready in November to offset part of attack-hit LNG capacity

The first LNG train of QatarEnergy’s North Field East expansion will be ready to run in November, with production expected in 1Q 2027, two people aware of the company’s plans told Reuters. The train gives Qatar a route to replace part of the 17% of national LNG capacity destroyed in the March attacks on Ras Laffan. CEO Saad Al Kaabi said last month the project would start production in 1H 2027.

Product from the complex is already moving again. Shell said yesterday it has partially restarted Pearl GTL, the 140k boe / d plant fed from the North Field, which lets it build a limited amount of inventory in storage. QatarEnergy has put Pearl-GTL naphtha back on the spot market with a tender of up to 50k tons across four grades FOB Ras Laffan, and has resumed some contract deliveries. India’s Haldia Petrochemicals received its 50k tons for the quarter. QatarEnergy’s last naphtha tender including the Pearl grade was awarded at a USD 150 discount to Middle East quotes.

The repair schedule runs well past that. Pearl’s damaged second train is due back in 1Q 2027, a Shell spokesperson said, against the one-year estimate the company gave in March. The two LNG trains hit at Ras Laffan need up to three years. Al Kaabi said last month that QatarEnergy is producing very little LNG and could return to normal operations within weeks of the strait reopening.

QatarEnergy’s upstream spending abroad has carried on through all of it. The company took a 30% stake in seven offshore exploration blocks in Brazil’s Ceará Basin, on the northeastern Equatorial Margin, in ANP’s sixth open acreage round, The Peninsula reports. Petrobras operates with 70%. The blocks cover about 4,700 sq km in water depths of 2,000-3,600 metres, and the concession contracts are due to be signed in 1H 2027.