QatarEnergy on June 20 signed a deal with ConocoPhillips Co. for the Gulf state’s North Field East expansion, the world’s largest LNG project, following agreements with TotalEnergies SE and Eni SpA.

Qatar is partnering with international companies in the first and largest phase of the nearly $30 billion expansion that will boost Qatar’s position as the world's top LNG exporter.

The companies will form a joint venture that will take a 12.5% stake in North Field East and ConocoPhillips will have a 25% stake in that joint venture.

The arrangement is similar to that announced with Eni on June 19 and implies a 3.12% stake in the overall North Field East project for ConocoPhillips.

QatarEnergy CEO Saad al-Kaabi said the partnerships with international companies would be effective for 27 years.

“That agreement is for 27 years. It is exactly the same for everybody that was going to be signing,” Kaabi said.

Oil majors have been bidding for four trains - or liquefaction and purification facilities - that comprise the North Field East project.

In all, the North Field Expansion plan includes six LNG trains that will ramp up Qatar’s liquefaction capacity from 77 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) to 126 mtpa by 2027. The fifth and sixth trains are part of a second phase, North Field South.

Kaabi said partners for the North Field South would be selected from those already involved in the first phase.

“Because we have chosen these companies as partners that we would like to have going forward” in North Field East and North Field South, he said.

The North Field is part of the world’s biggest gas field that Qatar shares with Iran, which calls its share South Pars.

Sources have said Exxon Mobil Corp. would also participate in the North Field East expansion.

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