![Qatar Petroleum (QP), the world's largest oil producer, announced Tuesday that it has raised its LNG capacity from 77 million to 100 million tons a year. Qatar Petroleum Chief Executive Officer Saad Sharida Al Kaabi told a news conference in Doha on 4 July, 2017 [Mohamed Farag/Anadolu Agency]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/2017_07_04-Qatar-Petroleum20170704_2_24540733_23724959.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1)
State-owned Qatar Petroleum (QP) is planning to invest at least $20 billion in the United States over the coming few years, the company’s Chief Executive, Saad Al-Kaabi, announced yesterday.
Speaking to Reuters, El-Kaabi said that his company aimed to announce the names of foreign partners for the new liquefied natural gas (LNG) trains it is building by mid next year, adding that QP would carry out the project alone if no good offers from foreign firms were made.
“Mark my words, if I don’t get a good deal, we go alone,” he stressed.
In this expansion, Al-Kabbi explained, QP will be looking “at gas and oil, conventional and non-conventional.”
He pointed out that he would announce a final decision on whether to move ahead with the project “by the end of the year, if not, in January”.
READ: Qatar’s decision to quit OPEC raises doubts about the future of the oil cartel
During the interview, Al-Kaabi noted that QP was also partnering with Italy’s Eni on three oil fields in Mexico, taking a 35 per cent stake in deposits. “The international project will begin production in mid-2019 and ramp up to about 90,000 barrels per day by 2021.”
Qatar produces 77 million tonnes of LNG every year. It plans to boost its capacity by 43 per cent by 2023-2024 and to build four liquefaction trains for the LNG expansion.
Earlier this month, Doha said it would quit the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) early next year, freeing the country from potential legal risks in the United States. The Gulf state’s move was seen as a swipe at the OPEC’s de facto leader Saudi Arabia, which along with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt, has been imposing a political and economic boycott on Qatar since 5 June 2017, accusing it of supporting terrorism. Qatar denies the accusations.