Qatargas was the operating company behind Qatar’s LNG export programme from its founding in 1984 until its consolidation into QatarEnergy as part of a 2018 restructuring. At its peak, Qatargas operated four distinct LNG project entities — Qatargas-1 through Qatargas-4 — with a combined liquefaction capacity of approximately 42 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) at Ras Laffan Industrial City. The Qatargas brand no longer exists as a standalone entity, but the trains it operated remain active under QatarEnergy’s direct management and continue to form the core of Qatar’s 77 MTPA export infrastructure.
What Was Qatargas?
Qatargas — formally Qatar Liquefied Gas Company — was established in 1984 as a joint venture between Qatar General Petroleum Corporation (QGPC) and a consortium of international oil companies including Total, ExxonMobil, Mitsui, and Marubeni. Its founding purpose was to commercialise Qatar’s North Field gas reserves through LNG export, at a time when the scale of the North Field — the world’s largest non-associated gas reservoir — was still being fully understood.
The company shipped Qatar’s first LNG cargo to Japan in 1996, marking the start of what would become one of the most consequential export programmes in the history of the global gas market. That first project, operating three liquefaction trains from Ras Laffan Industrial City with a combined capacity of approximately 10 MTPA, later became known as Qatargas-1 and is now designated QELNG North 1 under QatarEnergy’s operational structure.
Over the following two decades, the Qatargas name expanded to cover three further project entities — each a separate joint venture with different international partners, different train configurations, and different offtake arrangements — making Qatargas less a single operating company than a brand umbrella for Qatar’s western LNG project portfolio.
The Four Qatargas Projects: Capacity and Partners
Qatargas-1 comprised three conventional liquefaction trains at Ras Laffan with a combined capacity of approximately 10 MTPA. Joint venture partners alongside Qatar Petroleum included Total, ExxonMobil, Mitsui, and Marubeni. It was Qatar’s first operational LNG project and supplied long-term contracts primarily to Japanese buyers.
Qatargas-2 was a larger, more modern project comprising two mega-trains — Trains 4 and 5 — each with a capacity of approximately 7.8 MTPA, giving the project a combined output of around 15.6 MTPA. Qatar Petroleum held 65–70% equity depending on the train; ExxonMobil and Total held the minority stakes. Qatargas-2 was the first project in Qatar to use the AP-X liquefaction technology developed specifically for the mega-train configurations that defined the second generation of Qatari LNG expansion.
Qatargas-3 added a further 7.8 MTPA train, with ConocoPhillips holding a minority stake alongside Qatar Petroleum. Qatargas-4 added another 7.8 MTPA train with Shell as the international partner. Together, Qatargas-3 and Qatargas-4 brought the Qatargas portfolio to approximately 42 MTPA — at the time, making Qatargas the single largest LNG company in the world by production capacity.
RasGas: The Parallel Operation
Running alongside Qatargas was RasGas — Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Company — a separate joint venture entity established in 1993 with ExxonMobil as the primary international partner. RasGas operated seven liquefaction trains at Ras Laffan with a combined capacity of approximately 37 MTPA, supplying long-term contracts to buyers in South Korea, India, Italy, Spain, and the United States.
Where Qatargas was associated primarily with Total, ExxonMobil, and Japanese offtake markets, RasGas represented ExxonMobil’s deeper integration into the Qatari LNG programme and its supply relationships with South Korean and Indian importers. The two entities operated in parallel for over two decades, each with its own management structure, offtake portfolios, and operational teams — despite sharing the same industrial site at Ras Laffan.
The 2018 Consolidation into QatarEnergy
In January 2018, Qatar Petroleum announced the merger of Qatargas and RasGas into a single consolidated operating entity, retaining the Qatargas name initially before the broader rebrand to QatarEnergy in 2021 absorbed it entirely. The consolidation brought all 14 liquefaction trains at Ras Laffan under unified management for the first time, eliminating the duplicated corporate structures, separate executive teams, and divided operational protocols that had characterised the two-entity model.
The business case was straightforward: two companies sharing the same industrial city, the same feedgas pipeline network, the same port infrastructure, and many of the same international partners had limited justification for remaining structurally separate. The merger delivered operational efficiencies, simplified contract management, and created a single counterparty — eventually QatarEnergy — for all future offtake negotiations and expansion financing.
The international JV partners that held equity in the individual Qatargas and RasGas project entities retained their stakes in those specific trains post-consolidation. Shell’s position in Qatargas-4, ConocoPhillips in Qatargas-3, and ExxonMobil across multiple entities remained in place — the consolidation was an operating and management restructuring, not an ownership change at the project level.
What the Qatargas Trains Are Doing in 2026
The trains that operated under the Qatargas name continue to form the core of QatarEnergy’s 77 MTPA production base at Ras Laffan. QELNG North 1 — the original Qatargas-1 — was the first facility to restart following the March 2026 shutdown caused by Iranian strikes on the complex, with two of its three trains confirmed back online by 8 April. For full coverage of the 2026 production disruption, see QatarEnergy Ras Laffan: LNG Shutdown, Force Majeure and Restart.
The mega-trains commissioned under Qatargas-2, Qatargas-3, and Qatargas-4 remain the highest-capacity individual trains in Qatar’s portfolio, each at approximately 7.8 MTPA. These trains underpin the long-term supply contracts with European and Asian buyers that QatarEnergy continues to service — and that the 2026 force majeure declarations temporarily suspended. For the full QatarEnergy corporate profile covering the North Field expansion, JV partners, and the path to 160 MTPA, see Qatar Petroleum / QatarEnergy Company Profile.
The Qatargas brand survives primarily as a historical reference point — in long-term contract documentation, in academic and industry literature on the development of the global LNG market, and in the designation of the QELNG North 1 trains that still carry the Qatargas-1 lineage. For a capacity-ranked view of how Ras Laffan compares to other major LNG export facilities globally, see the Top 10 LNG Terminals in the World 2026.
What happened to Qatargas?
Qatargas was merged with RasGas in January 2018 to form a single consolidated LNG operating entity under Qatar Petroleum, which was subsequently rebranded QatarEnergy in 2021. The Qatargas brand no longer exists as a standalone company. The trains it operated — Qatargas-1 through Qatargas-4 — continue to run at Ras Laffan Industrial City under QatarEnergy’s direct management.
How many LNG trains did Qatargas operate?
Qatargas operated four project entities comprising a total of eight liquefaction trains at Ras Laffan Industrial City. Qatargas-1 had three conventional trains with a combined capacity of approximately 10 MTPA. Qatargas-2, Qatargas-3, and Qatargas-4 each added one mega-train of approximately 7.8 MTPA, bringing the total Qatargas portfolio to around 42 MTPA at its peak.
What is the difference between Qatargas and RasGas?
Qatargas and RasGas were two separate joint venture entities operating LNG trains at Ras Laffan Industrial City. Qatargas was established in 1984 with Total, ExxonMobil, Mitsui, and Marubeni as partners; RasGas was established in 1993 with ExxonMobil as the primary partner. Both operated in parallel for over two decades before being consolidated into a single entity in 2018. Together they accounted for all 14 of Qatar’s liquefaction trains.
Who were the joint venture partners in Qatargas?
Partners varied across the four Qatargas project entities. Qatargas-1 involved Total, ExxonMobil, Mitsui, and Marubeni alongside Qatar Petroleum. Qatargas-2 involved ExxonMobil and Total. Qatargas-3 involved ConocoPhillips. Qatargas-4 involved Shell. Qatar Petroleum held the majority equity position in all four entities and retained operator control throughout.
Is Qatargas the same as QatarEnergy?
Qatargas was a predecessor entity to QatarEnergy, not the same company. Qatargas operated Qatar’s western LNG train portfolio from 1984 until the 2018 merger with RasGas. The combined entity operated briefly under the Qatargas name before Qatar Petroleum rebranded its entire corporate structure as QatarEnergy in 2021. QatarEnergy now manages all 14 trains at Ras Laffan, including those that operated under both the Qatargas and RasGas names.