Eni of Italy and Qatar sign a 27-year gas supply agreement

Following similar agreements this month to supply the Netherlands through Shell and France through TotalEnergies, state-owned QatarEnergy announced on Monday that it would supply gas to Italy's Eni for duration of 27 years.

A long-term sale and purchase agreement was signed by QatarEnergy and Eni affiliates for up to one million tons per year (mtpa) of LNG produced by Qatar's North Field expansion project.

Beginning in 2026, LNG will be supplied to the FSRU Italia, a floating storage and regasification unit located in the port of Piombino, Tuscany.

With the help of the North Field South and East expansions, Eni, which owns a 3.125% share in the project, would increase Qatar's liquefaction capacity from 77 mtpa to 126 mtpa by 2027.

In the previous two weeks, Qatar—already the leading LNG exporter in the world—signed its largest and longest-term gas supply agreements in Europe, covering 27 years, to deliver 3.5 million tons of gas per year to Shell and TotalEnergies starting in 2026.

Up until then, Europe had lagged behind Asia in securing supply from QatarEnergy's two-phase expansion of LNG output due to the latter's appetite for long-term sale and purchase agreements.

Two Asian deals were signed in November: one for a 4 mtpa, 27-year supply to China's Sinopec, and another in June with China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC).

Long-term contracts are being signed by European Union buyers to replace Russian gas, which supplied nearly 40% of the gas prior to Moscow's incursion into Ukraine last year.

The EU's largest importer of Russian gas was Germany. Thanks to a 15-year agreement reached in November 2022 between QatarEnergy and ConocoPhillips, it will now receive 2 mtpa starting in 2026.

Italy already gets more than 10% of its natural gas requirements from Qatari LNG shipments to the Adriatic terminal, according to QatarEnergy.

Head of QatarEnergy Saad al-Kaabi said in a statement that the company would keep proving its dedication to the Italian market in particular and to the European markets as a whole.