Qatar Petroleum executives are jetting around the globe to ink new contracts after the gas-rich nation announced the largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in history. The mega expansion project aims to boost the country’s LNG annual production from 77 million to 126 million tons to reaffirm its dominance as the world's largest LNG exporter.

Natural gas is often touted as a relatively clean fossil fuel that emits only about half the carbon dioxide when burned than coal and is necessary for a transition to low-carbon energy under the narrative aggressively pushed by the oil and gas industry. 

“Gas is sort of in a Catholic marriage with renewables in my view; they would need to stay together for a very long time,” Qatari Energy Minister Saad Al-Kaabi told Bloomberg in February. 

Ian Nathan, director of global LNG services at Energy Intelligence, a US-based leading provider of energy news and analysis, said, “Our forecast for LNG is 4.1% annual growth to 2030, and roughly 75% of that demand growth will come from several large Asian growth markets such as China, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Taiwan and Thailand.”