QatarEnergy said yesterday that it had awarded an EPC contract worth about $10bn to a joint venture between France’s Technip Energies and Greece-based Consolidated Contractors Company.

The deal aims to develop the North Field South (NFS) gas reserves, and will involve the construction of two huge LNG trains with a combined capacity of 16 million tonnes a year (MTPA).

According to the AFP news agency, Technip holds a “comfortable majority” of the capital involved in the project.

The LNG trains, together with further expansion of North Field East, will boost Qatar’s total production to 126 MTPA, compared with 77 at present.

Commenting on the deal, Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, Qatar’s energy minister, said: “QatarEnergy is proud to announce yet another significant milestone in the world’s largest LNG project, reinforcing our commitment to meeting the global demand for natural gas.

“The NFS project is a unique development that minimises its environmental footprint by design. It includes one of the largest carbon capture and sequestration facilities and constitutes an important step towards achieving QatarEnergy’s target of more than 11 MTPA of carbon capture and sequestration by 2035.”

Qatar’s north field holds the world’s biggest natural gas reservoir and extends under the Gulf into Iranian territory.

QatarEnergy holds a 75% interest in the project and has already signed partnership agreements with TotalEnergies, Shell and ConocoPhillips for the remaining 25%.