Qatar Petroleum (QP) announced Monday that it is creating Ocean LNG Ltd., a new joint venture with ExxonMobil Corp. to market its liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply portfolio sourced outside of the State of Qatar.

QP said the decision to establish Ocean LNG was driven by its desire to become a global LNG leader and to continue to look beyond Qatar for LNG investment opportunities. An affiliate of QP will hold a 70% interest in the new entity, with an ExxonMobil affiliate holding the remaining 30%.

Qatar Petroleum International owns a 70% interest in the Golden Pass LNG export project in Texas, a joint venture with ExxonMobil Corp. (30%).* Golden Pass earned a favorable environmental impact statement from FERC this summer (see Daily GPI, July 29).

QP said it plans to set up a branch office for Ocean LNG in Doha, Qatar, to manage the marketing entity’s activities.

“QP aspires to be one of the leading energy companies in the world, and LNG forms one of the cornerstones of these aspirations,” CEO Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi said. “As such, it is crucial for us to establish a global LNG marketing arm that will be instrumental in monetizing opportunities that Qatar Petroleum will be pursuing and capturing outside Qatar.”

The global LNG space is expected to be crowded in the short- to medium-term as a number of export projects come online in the United States and Australia, flooding the market with new capacity. North American LNG operators remain bullish, however, about the long-term fundamentals of exports sourced by abundant U.S. onshore supply (see Daily GPI, Oct. 6).

*Correction: In an earlier version of this article NGI incorrectly stated the ownership shares in the proposed Golden Pass LNG export project. Qatar Petroleum International owns a 70% interest in the export project, with ExxonMobil Corp. owning a 30% interest. The percentages provided in the original article apply to the existing Golden Pass LNG terminal but not the export project. NGI regrets the error.