DOHA: Qatar has agreed to supply the Taiwan-headquartered Chinese Petroleum Corp (CPC) with natural gas for 27 years, the emirate’s state energy company announced on Wednesday.

Qatar will supply four million tonnes of gas a year under the deal, QatarEnergy said in a statement, without disclosing the cost of the agreement.

“We look forward to further enhancing our relationship with CPC… and to further demonstrate our unwavering commitment to our customers and partners around the world,” said Energy Minister Saad al-Kaabi, who is also the chief executive of QatarEnergy.

Qatar is one of the world’s top liquefied natural gas producers alongside the United States, Australia and Russia.

Asian countries led by China, Japan and South Korea have been the main market for Qatari gas, but demand has also grown from European countries since Russia’s war on Ukraine threw supplies into doubt.

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Under the deal, inked at a signing ceremony in Doha, CPC is to be given a partnership in Qatar’s North Field East project, a part of Qatar’s overall North Field Expansion programme.

The larger expansion, which broke ground last year, contains the world’s biggest natural gas reserves and extends under the Gulf into Iranian territory.

CPC Chairman Shun-Chin Lee said QatarEnergy had been “playing an important role in ensuring Taiwan’s domestic gas market over the past decades”.

He said acquired equity in the North Field East project “will further strengthen the cooperative relationship between our two countries”.

In February, Qatar announced plans to expand its output from its North Field project, saying it will boost capacity to 142 million tonnes per year before 2030.

In recent months, Qatar has inked LNG deals with France’s Total, Britain’s Shell, India’s Petronet, China’s Sinopec and Italy’s Eni among others.

The first with Sinopec in 2022, also for 27 years, was at the time the longest in the LNG industry.