Qatar will sign its first LNG ship slot agreement on Wednesday for booking ship-building capacity to handle supplies from the expansion of the North Field, Qatar's Minister of State for Energy Affairs and Qatar Petroleum CEO Saad al-Kaabi said Monday in an interview with S&P Global Platts.

At least 60 ships will be constructed, worth in "billions of dollars", Kaabi said. The orders represented 60% of the world's LNG ship-building capacity, he said. The exact number will be determined by who is ordering the LNG.

"It depends how my market mix is going to be," Kaabi said. "It depends on destination, that will give us the exact number I will need. But 60-80 will be a minimum, I think. We have also older ships from the other projects that we will be replacing, which will also come into the count. The first batch, we just finalized with one shipyard, and we will be signing Wednesday. And before the summer here, we will be signing all the shipping."

Qatar plans to tap its offshore North Field, the world's largest gas field which it shares with Iran, to boost its LNG exports after lifting a 12-year moratorium on the development of the field in 2017.

It is expanding LNG production capacity to 110 million mt/year from 77 million mt/year, with four LNG trains under construction.

Qatar Petroleum will also be announcing "quite soon" a trading desk in Qatar after hiring traders and establishing a trading platform after more than a year of planning, Kaabi said. It will begin with a focus on LNG, and include trading for third parties, he said.

Qatar's production is currently 22 billion cf/day of gas and about 600,000 b/d of crude oil, Kaabi said.

Kuwait, Pakistan

The emergence of spot pricing for LNG has managed to take some sales, but still some 60%-70% is still under term deals, including with Pakistan and Kuwait recently, the minister said.

"Some countries want spot but they cannot depend on the spot market. We still think long-term prices are the way forward."

Qatar prefers contracts to be oil-linked prices, as opposed to other pricing used in the market, such as Henry Hub.

"If you look at how our buyers react, when the price is low they want oil-linked. When the price is high, they want Henry Hub," Kaabi said. "We think we have a good mix of all. You need to have a satisfied customer and a satisfied seller. There will always be a debate."

Qatar has not halted any projects because of the COVID-19 pandemic, as most experts are looking for increased LNG demand by 2028, Kaabi said.

"Something like the pandemic is a temporary thing, but we have not pushed back any projects or canceled anything because of demand," he said.

"We are going to be ready to serve the market. We will be ahead of others because our position of a determined approach that is very methodical and transparent and continuous. Short-term events do not impact our capital expenditure or how we feel about gas. We think there is a very solid market in the future and we will be there to supply it."

Qatar Petroleum last year agreed to build the Golden Pass LNG export terminal in Texas with a capacity to produce up to 16 million mt/year at a cost of over $10 billion.