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Qatar on track to become the biggest buyer of U.S. LNG by 2033, Wood Mackenzie says
QatarEnergy is expected to control about 23.7 million tonnes a year of American LNG by 2033, more than any other buyer, as new Cheniere and Woodside deals and its Golden Pass stake in Texas hedge against the Hormuz disruption to its own exports.
Qatar, long one of the world's two biggest exporters of liquefied natural gas, is on track to become the largest buyer of American LNG. State-owned QatarEnergy is expected to control about 23.7 million tonnes a year of U.S. LNG by 2033, more than any other buyer, according to research firm Wood Mackenzie, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.
The total combines QatarEnergy's 70% share of the Golden Pass LNG plant in Texas, a joint venture with ExxonMobil, with two long-term deals signed in late October. The gas will be resold to customers worldwide rather than shipped to Qatar, the FT said.
Two U.S. deals in one week
On Oct. 22, QatarEnergy agreed to buy 4 million tonnes a year from Cheniere Energy's Sabine Pass and Corpus Christi plants through 2054, priced on the Henry Hub benchmark plus a fixed fee, with deliveries expected from 2031. Cheniere chief executive Jack Fusco said the company looked forward to "reliably supplying QatarEnergy," CNBC reported.
A week later came a 20-year deal for up to 3 million tonnes a year from Woodside's Louisiana LNG project, starting in 2030. "These additional volumes make QatarEnergy the largest buyer of LNG from the US," said Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, Qatar's energy minister and QatarEnergy's chief executive, according to Bloomberg.
A hedge against Hormuz
The buying spree is widely read as a hedge. Every Qatari cargo must cross the Strait of Hormuz, and QatarEnergy has been under force majeure since early March, when the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran choked shipping and Iranian strikes hit its Ras Laffan complex. The attack knocked out about 17% of Qatar's export capacity, and Al-Kaabi has said repairs will take about three years. Shipments recovered to roughly a third of pre-war levels in October, Semafor reported.
Trading is the other driver: Al-Kaabi said in May 2025 that QatarEnergy aims to trade 30 to 40 million tonnes a year of non-Qatari LNG by 2030, S&P Global reported.
More deals on the table
Al-Kaabi told Reuters he expects more U.S. and international deals by year-end, with volumes "much higher" than the 7 million tonnes agreed so far, and said the company is talking to "everybody," including Venture Global. Jason Feer of Poten & Partners told the FT he expects two or three more U.S. agreements.
The deals tie Qatar closer to the world's top LNG supplier. U.S. exports hit a record 15.1 billion cubic feet per day in 2025, 26% of global trade, and rose another 23% in the first half of 2026, according to the Energy Information Administration. Golden Pass shipped its first cargo in April.
Sources: Financial Times, Wood Mackenzie, Bloomberg, Reuters, CNBC, Semafor, S&P Global, U.S. EIA. Cover: QatarEnergy headquarters, Doha. Photos: Quintin Soloviev, Nakilat (archive) / Wikimedia Commons
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