Qatar has announced new plans to expand output from the world’s biggest natural gas field, saying it will boost capacity to 142 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) before 2030.

The new North Field expansion, named North Field West, will add a further 16 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) per year to existing expansion plans, Qatar’s Energy Minister Saad Sherida al-Kaabi said at a news conference on Sunday.

Recent studies have shown that the North Field contains huge additional gas quantities estimated at 240 trillion cubic feet, which raises the state of Qatar’s gas reserves from 1,760 [trillion cubic feet] to more than 2,000 trillion cubic feet,” said al-Kaabi, who also heads the state-owned company QatarEnergy.

These results “will enable us to begin developing a new LNG project from the North Field’s western sector with a production capacity of about 16 million tonnes per annum”, he said.

This will bring Qatar’s production capacity to 142 million tonnes once “the new expansion is completed before the end of this decade” – a nearly 85 percent rise from current production levels, al-Kaabi added.

The QatarEnergy chief said the firm will “immediately commence” with engineering works to ensure the expansion is completed on time.

Qatar is one of the world’s top LNG producers alongside the United States, Australia and Russia.

Asian countries led by China, Japan and South Korea have been the main market for Qatari gas, but demand has also grown from European countries since Russia’s war on Ukraine threw supplies into doubt.

The latest expansion plans follow a flurry of announcements for long-term Qatari gas supply deals.

Earlier this month, Qatar said it would supply 7.5mtpa of LNG for 20 years to India’s Petronet, with the first deliveries expected from May 2028.