DOHA: Qatargas Operating Company (Qatargas) recently opened its representative office in Beijing, China.

Qatargas together with senior representatives of the Chinese and Qatari Governments, LNG customers, the diplomatic community and its shareholders gathered at a ceremony held in Kunlun Hotel, Beijing, to mark the next milestone in the strengthening of the long-term relationship between Qatar and China.

Just last month, Qatargas celebrated the first shipment of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to China in one of its state-of-the-art Q-Flex LNG carriers. The cargo was delivered at the Guangdong Dapeng LNG receiving terminal near the major Chinese industrial city of Shenzhen, Guangdong Province.

The arrival of this cargo represented the beginning of long-term stable supplies of clean energy from the State of Qatar to the People’s Republic of China.

The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy and Industry H E Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah who was in Beijing to attend the celebration considers that “China is the centre today of the new LNG compass”.

“With the opening of our Beijing representative office we are demonstrating our long-term commitment to the Chinese energy market which is poised to be one of the biggest LNG consumers in the world in the near future,”  said Faisal M Al Suwaidi, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Qatargas.

“As Qatargas ramps up its supply of LNG to the world’s fastest growing economy it is considered extremely important that Qatargas should establish a physical presence here in Beijing in order to be close to its LNG customers,” he added.

Qatargas currently has executed long-term commitments to supply five million tonnes of LNG to China.