QatarEnergy exports first LNG from $10 billion Texas plant

By Alton Wallace
The Center Square

QatarEnergy, the world’s second largest liquified natural gas exporter in 2025, announced Wednesday it has begun shipping gas from the Golden Pass facility on the east Texas Gulf Coast.

The Golden Pass LNG project, a joint venture owned 70% by state-owned QatarEnergy and 30% by ExxonMobil, shipped the facility’s inaugural commercial cargo on the 174,000-cubic-meter vessel Al-Qaiyyah. The ship, owned and operated by QatarEnergy, is in transit to fulfill a long-term contract with a customer in Italy, according to a report in Reuters.

According to shipping analytics company Kpler, Qatar was the world’s second-largest exporter of LNG in 2025, behind only the United States.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission granted final permission for so-called “commissioning cargoes” from the Golden Pass terminal just two days prior to the ship’s departure.

“This is a significant industry milestone that marks a new chapter in QatarEnergy’s global efforts to meet rising LNG demand and ensure reliable supplies to global markets,” said Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, the minister of state for energy affairs who also serves as president and CEO of QatarEnergy.

QatarEnergy has signed contracts for 128 vessels in its shipbuilding program as part of a fleet expansion that aims to reach 200 vessels in total by 2028.

A March 18 Iranian missile strike on Qatar’s Ras Laffan Industrial City – the world’s largest LNG export hub – damaged two of the 14 production trains at QatarEnergy’s main plant, which took about 17% of the country’s total output offline. Qatari officials estimate the LNG production trains will be inoperable for three to five years.

QatarEnergy CEO Saad al-Kaabi stated that the damage at Ras Laffan could result in an estimated $20 billion in lost annual revenue.

Partners QatarEnergy and ExxonMobil expect to begin operating the second and third trains at the Golden Pass export plant in the second half of 2026 and the first half of 2027, respectively. Once fully operational, the facility’s total planned production capacity will reach 18.1 million tons per year, representing a total investment exceeding $10 billion, according to the companies.

The Golden Pass terminal was originally built in 2009 as an import facility intended to bring Qatari LNG into the United States, but the shale revolution soon made domestic gas supplies so abundant the facility sat dormant. In 2012, the two joint-venture partners decided to convert the terminal into an export hub.

Golden Pass is the 10th operational LNG export facility in the United States and will represent the only addition to production capacity on American soil expected in 2026, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.