World’s largest LNG producer, Qatar said on Friday it plans to invest 10 billion euros ($11.6 billion) in Germany over the next five years.
The investment may include the creation of Germany’s first LNG import terminal, according to a Reuters report.
Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani announced the funding boost at a bilateral investment conference in Berlin.
“To express our trust in the strength of the German economy and the importance of investing in it, I announce the intention of Qatar to pump investments that amount to 10 billion euros into the German economy in the next five years,” al-Thani said.
Reuters reported German Chancellor Angela Merkel as saying during the same conference that the energy sector offered promising opportunities to expand business ties, adding that Qatar’s LNG supplies would help diversify supply sources.
She said Germany was already linked with LNG terminals in the Netherlands, Belgium and Poland, but her government was working to expand the LNG network within Germany, and German companies were working toward a potential local LNG terminal, the report said.
The report also said that Qatar’s energy minister Mohammed al-Sada on Thursday threw his support behind the possible cooperation of Qatar Petroleum in the German LNG project.
To remind, Dutch companies Gasunie and Vopak and Germany’s Oiltanking formed last year German LNG Terminal, under which they plan to build and operate the LNG terminal in Brunsbuettel in northern Germany.
The total capacity of the combined LNG import and small-scale terminal will be 5 billion cubic metres per year.