The Financial Times reported on December 22, 2024, that Qatari Energy Minister Saad Al-Kaabi said his country would stop gas shipments to the European Union if it imposed new legislation that would punish companies that do not comply with strict environmental, social and governance reporting standards for large companies operating in the territory of the Member States of the European Union.
Qatar is one of the world's largest producers of liquefied natural gas (LNG), alongside the United States, Russia and Australia.
Asian countries, led by China, Japan and South Korea, constitute the main market for Qatari gas. But it has received increasing demand from European countries seeking to reduce their dependence on Moscow in this area, since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The year 2023 saw the signing of a series of long-term agreements in this area with the Chinese Sinopec, the French TotalEnergy, the British Shell and the Italian Eni. These agreements, all of which span 27 years, are the longest in the history of liquefied natural gas production.
Average annual LNG exports to and from Qatar, the world's third largest LNG exporter, were between 10.1 and 10.5 billion cubic feet per day, between 2020 and 2023.
