Japan's Prime Minister in Qatar on a visit centered on natural gas at the last stop of his Gulf Tour

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida arrived in Qatar, the gas-rich Gulf state, on Tuesday, concluding his Gulf tour focused on energy security and cooperation in the field of clean energy with countries that supply Tokyo with most of its oil needs.

Qatar News Agency reported that Kishida arrived "in Doha, this morning (Tuesday), on an official visit to the country."

The Japanese Prime Minister said in an interview with the agency published on Monday that his country looks forward to working closely with Qatar to achieve stability in the global liquefied natural gas market.

Kishida's visit to Qatar is the first by a Japanese Prime Minister in ten years, and it comes as part of a Gulf tour that included the United Arab Emirates on Monday and Saudi Arabia on Sunday, where he met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler of the Kingdom.

The last Gulf tour by a Japanese Prime Minister was conducted by Shinzo Abe in 2020.

Kishida is expected to meet with Qatar's Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, seeking cooperation "to ensure stable supplies of liquefied natural gas," according to Japan's public broadcaster NHK.

Kishida's visit to Doha comes as Japanese companies are negotiating new long-term contracts to purchase liquefied natural gas from Qatar, according to the financial agency "Bloomberg."

The agency stated that Japanese liquefied natural gas importers have not signed any contracts with Qatar since 2014, and Qatari shipments to Tokyo declined by more than 60% last year.

It pointed out that the Japanese company JERA, the largest importer of liquefied natural gas in the country, did not renew contracts that expired in 2021, which secured 5.5 million tons of gas annually.

At the same time, China signed two long-term contracts to purchase liquefied natural gas from Qatar.

Last month, Doha announced the signing of an agreement with the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) to supply it with four million tons of liquefied natural gas annually for 27 years.

In November of last year, Qatar signed a matching agreement with the Chinese oil giant "Sinopec." The contract was considered at the time "the longest in the history of the liquefied gas industry."

Asian countries (China, Japan, and South Korea at the forefront) constitute the main market for Qatari gas, which European countries have increasingly sought since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Qatar is working on expanding the North Field project, the world's largest natural gas field that extends under the waters of the Gulf to Iranian territory and contains about 10% of the world's known natural gas reserves, according to estimates by Qatar Petroleum.

The project, estimated at $28.75 billion, is expected to help Qatar increase its production of liquefied natural gas by more than 60% to reach 126 million tons by 2027.

 

 

 

 

 

 

AFP