QatarEnergy and Italy’s Eni ink 27-year gas supply agreement

QatarEnergy, a state-owned energy company, has announced a 27-year gas supply agreement with Italy’s Eni, adding to recent similar deals with Shell in the Netherlands and TotalEnergies in France, Reuters reported.

The agreement involves the supply of up to one million tons per annum (MTPA) of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatar to the FSRU Italia, in Tuscany’s port of Piombino from 2026.

The sale and purchase agreement (SPA) was signed by the Minister of State for Energy Affairs and QatarEnergy President and CEO Saad Sherida al-Kaabi, and Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi, at an event held in Doha in the presence of senior executives from both companies.

“This agreement further builds on Eni’s first entry in the upstream sector in the State of Qatar through our partnership in the historic North Field East expansion project,” Minister al-Kaabi said.

“These contracts mark a strategic move for Qatar, expanding its presence in the European market,” al-Kaabi added.

QatarEnergy bilateral LNG agreements

QatarEnergy is currently strengthening its energy position in Asian and European markets.

Several Asian deals have been signed which included 27-year supply to China’s Sinopec sealed in November for 4 MTPA and an identical one signed in June with China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC).

As for the European Union, buyers are signing long-term deals to replace Russian gas, which had accounted for almost 40 percent of supply before Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine last year.

Previously the largest consumer of Russian gas in the European Union, Germany has recently secured a 15-year agreement, signed in November 2022 between QatarEnergy and ConocoPhillips, to receive 2 MTPA from 2026 onwards.

In the case of TotalEnergies in France, two long-term LNG sale and purchase agreements (SPAs) have been finalized, providing up to 3.5 MTPA of LNG from Qatar.

Similarly, in the Netherlands, QatarEnergy and Shell affiliates have signed two long-term LNG SPAs to supply up to 3.5 MTPA of LNG from Qatar.

Commenting on this occasion, Minister al-Kaabi said: “These agreements reaffirm Qatar’s commitment to help meeting Europe’s energy demands and bolstering its energy security.”