QatarEnergy Adds Up to 4 Million Tonnes a Year of US LNG From Cheniere Through 2054

By The Edge Research Team

QatarEnergy has signed 2 long-term agreements to buy up to 4 million tonnes a year of liquefied natural gas from Cheniere’s Sabine Pass and Corpus Christi plants on the US Gulf Coast. Deliveries run on a free-on-board basis and are expected to start in 2031 and continue through 2054. On our calculation, the illustrative maximum is 96 million tonnes of US LNG for QatarEnergy’s portfolio. That assumes the full rate in every year from the start of 2031 to the end of 2054, with no ramp-up. It also counts the conditional 1 million tonnes a year tied to the Sabine Pass expansion decision.

The agreements were signed by His Excellency Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, the Minister of State for Energy Affairs and President and CEO of QatarEnergy, and Jack Fusco, Chairman, President and CEO of Cheniere Energy. Al-Kaabi said the purchase will “expand and diversify our global LNG portfolio”, and that the extra volumes will complement QatarEnergy’s existing LNG supplies and enhance its supply and trading portfolio.

Sabine Pass and Corpus Christi, one Henry Hub formula

The volume splits evenly. Sabine Pass Liquefaction in Louisiana will supply 2 million tonnes a year, and Corpus Christi Liquefaction in Texas the other 2 million. The price is indexed to the US Henry Hub gas price plus a fixed fee, Cheniere said in its release at 13:00 GMT.

The release names one condition. A tranche of 1 million tonnes a year of the Sabine Pass volume depends on a positive final investment decision on the first phase of the Sabine Pass expansion. On our calculation, that is half of the Sabine Pass contract and 25 percent of the total. Cheniere does not identify the remaining 3 million tonnes a year, or 75 percent on our calculation, as subject to that expansion condition.

QatarEnergy anticipates the first deliveries in 2031. The seller’s release puts the start in the early 2030s and the end at the close of 2054. On our reading, the free-on-board basis leaves the shipping with QatarEnergy.

The 2 Cheniere agreements

Terms as set out in the seller’s release of 22 October 2026; the buyer anticipates first deliveries in 2031.

A buyer’s contract in a seller’s portfolio

Every other long-term agreement in the table below is a sale. This one is a purchase. QatarEnergy’s trading arm, QatarEnergy Trading LLC, was set up in 2020 as a wholly owned subsidiary with a brief to build a globally diversified portfolio of third-party and equity LNG. On our reading, third-party US cargoes fit that brief directly.

In May 2025, Al-Kaabi put QatarEnergy’s physical LNG trading at an estimated 10 million tonnes.

The deal also widens QatarEnergy’s American base beyond Golden Pass LNG. QatarEnergy holds 70 percent of that venture and ExxonMobil 30 percent. The project has 3 trains and 18 million tonnes a year of capacity. First LNG from Golden Pass was announced on 30 March 2026, and its first export cargo on 23 April. On our calculation, QatarEnergy’s 70 percent share equals 12.6 million tonnes a year of equity-attributable capacity. The Cheniere volume is 22.2 percent of Golden Pass’s full capacity, also on our calculation.

Golden Pass formed part of a plan QatarEnergy announced in 2018 to invest 20 billion dollars in the US energy sector. The partners took the final investment decision, worth more than 10 billion dollars, in February 2019.

On the sales side, QatarEnergy has kept signing long-term supply deals.

QatarEnergy’s long-term LNG SPAs since October 2025

Company announcements of 29 October 2025, 3 and 4 February 2026 and 22 October 2026. Not shown: an agreement with EGAS to supply up to 24 LNG cargoes, 4 January 2026.

By annual volume, the purchase is the largest in the table. On our calculation, it is a third larger than the JERA sale, twice the Petronas sale and 4 times the GSPC contract. Upstream, QatarEnergy has also been active abroad since June: 7 exploration blocks in Brazil with Petrobras in October, an agreement on Blocks 8 and 22 in Angola in September, and a commercial discovery declaration for the Glaucus and Pegasus fields offshore Cyprus in June.

Measured against Qatar’s growth and Cheniere’s platform

At home, the North Field expansion is the bigger story. In February 2026 QatarEnergy awarded the engineering, procurement and construction contract for North Field West, 2 mega-trains with 16 million tonnes a year of capacity. It went to a joint venture of Technip Energies, Consolidated Contractors Company and Gulf Asia Contractor. North Field West is the last of the expansion projects that will lift Qatar’s production to 142 million tonnes a year. It follows North Field East at 32 million tonnes a year and North Field South at 16 million.

Against that plan the US purchase is a top-up, not a substitute, on our reading. It equals 2.8 percent of the 142 million tonne target on our calculation, and a quarter of North Field West alone. When North Field West was announced in February 2024, QatarEnergy put additional North Field gas at an estimated 240 trillion cubic feet. That lifted Qatar’s gas reserves from 1,760 to more than 2,000 trillion cubic feet.

For Cheniere the contract is large. The company gives its operating capacity as an estimated 56 million tonnes a year and puts an estimated 5 million more under construction. The QatarEnergy volume equals 7.1 percent of that operating base on our calculation. Against the company’s 2026 production forecast of 53 to 54 million tonnes, it equals 7.4 to 7.5 percent on our calculation.

Corpus Christi Stage 3 reached substantial completion on 28 August with its seventh and last train. Cheniere’s 5,000th cargo left Sabine Pass on 29 August. By the end of August, the company had supplied more than 340 million tonnes of LNG since its first cargo in 2016. The company says its platform is over 10 percent of global LNG capacity.

The conditional 1 million tonnes a year ties into that growth. The Sabine Pass expansion would take the site above 50 million tonnes a year. Its first phase, Train 7 and a boil-off gas re-liquefaction unit, is sized at over 6 million tonnes a year. The construction contract with Bechtel was signed in May 2026. Bechtel was released to start early engineering and procurement under a limited notice to proceed. On our calculation, QatarEnergy’s conditional 1 million tonnes a year is less than 16.7 percent of that first phase.

Cheniere’s Petrobras contract, announced on 29 September, covers an estimated 0.8 million tonnes a year for 22 years. The QatarEnergy deal is 5 times that estimated annual volume on our calculation.

The 4 MTPA against capacity yardsticks

Capacities and targets as published by the 2 companies; the 56 is an approximate figure at source, and the 2026 forecast is output for the year in million tonnes. Shares are our calculation.

Why it matters: QatarEnergy is adding a US-priced, flexible supply stream to a portfolio built on Qatari gas. On our reading, the Henry Hub link gives its traders a US gas price alongside its own supply, and the free-on-board terms leave the shipping with QatarEnergy. Deliveries expected to run from 2031 to 2054 add third-party volumes to its supply and trading portfolio well into the 2050s. For Cheniere, 1 million tonnes a year of the volume is tied to its Sabine Pass expansion decision.

Outlook: The next milestone for the deal is a positive final investment decision on the first Sabine Pass expansion phase, which would confirm the conditional 1 million tonnes a year. At home, North Field West, now under contract, is the last project on Qatar’s path to 142 million tonnes a year. The Cheniere volumes are expected to join that larger portfolio from 2031.

Sources: QatarEnergy, Cheniere Energy, The Edge.

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