Doha,Qatar — Qatar’s state-owned energy giant QatarEnergy has entered into an agreement with Shell to acquire a 40 percent working interest in the C-10 block located offshore Mauritania.
QatarEnergy will hold the interest in the Exploration and Production Agreement pertaining to the C-10 block, while Shell will hold a 50 percent interest and the Societe Mauritanienne des Hydrocarbures a 10 percent interest.
The C-10 block covers an area of approximately 11,500 square kilometers and is located approximately 50 kilometers off the coast of Mauritania in water depths of approximately 50 to 2,000 meters.
Qatar’s Minister of State for Energy Affairs and the President and CEO of QatarEnergy Saad bin Sherida Al Kaabi said, “We’re excited about the opportunity to participate in Mauritania’s upstream sector which further builds on our exploration footprint in Africa, and we look forward to a successful exploration program.”
In October last year, QatarEnergy selected Shell as its second international partner in the North Field South (NFS) expansion project, which comprises 2 LNG mega trains with a combined capacity of 16 million tons per annum (MTPA). This brings the country’s total LNG production capacity to 126 MTPA.
The agreement gives Shell an effective net participating stake of 9.375 percent in the NFS project, out of a 25 percent interest available for international partners. QatarEnergy will hold the remaining 75 percent.
The North Field Expansion Project, comprising NFS and the North Field East (NFE) expansion projects, is the industry’s largest-ever LNG project. It will start production in 2026 and will add more than 48 MTPA to the world’s LNG supplies by 2027.
Largest ethylene cracker unit
In November last year, QatarEnergy and Chevron Phillips Chemical (CPChem) reached a final investment decision to build an $8.5 billion polymers facility in Texas.
Located about 180 kilometers east of Houston, the plant will include an ethylene cracker unit with a capacity of 2.08 million tons per annum, making it the largest in the world, and two high-density polyethylene units with a combined capacity of 2 million tons per annum, also making them the largest derivatives units of their kind in the world. Construction of the plant will begin immediately, with an expected startup date in 2026.
The plant will be owned by Golden Triangle Polymers Company LLC, a joint venture in which QatarEnergy holds a 49 percent equity interest with 51 percent held by CPChem.