State-owned QatarEnergy, the world’s biggest liquefied natural gas exporter, has unveiled its second multi-decade deal within a week with a competitor on the U.S. Gulf Coast, as the company’s own Ras Laffan export plant on the Persian Gulf remains offline following Iranian missile strikes.

The Qatari energy giant signed an agreement Thursday to buy up to 3 million metric tons of LNG annually for 20 years from Australia-based Woodside Energy, whose Louisiana LNG export plant is now under construction in Calcasieu Parish near Lake Charles. The plant’s first production is targeted for 2029, with deliveries to QatarEnergy expected to begin in 2030.

Last week, QatarEnergy signed two agreements with Houston-based Cheniere Energy for 4 million metric tons of LNG annually supplied at the company’s export plants in Cameron Parish and Corpus Christi, Texas, beginning in the early 2030s and continuing through 2054. Of that total, 1 million metric tons annually is subject to a final investment decision on the first phase of the Sabine Pass expansion.

Qatar’s energy minister, Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, said in a statement that both the multidecade purchases from American producers and the company’s joint venture with ExxonMobil — the $10 billion Golden Pass LNG export plant now under construction in Port Arthur, Texas — support QatarEnergy’s long-term growth and diversification strategy.

“We are pleased to further enhance our global supply and trading portfolio with another long-term purchase of LNG from the U.S.,” Al-Kaabi said in a statement Thursday. “These additional volumes make QatarEnergy the largest buyer of LNG from the U.S. and place us in a stronger position to meet the global growing needs for LNG.”

Two damaged production units at QatarEnergy’s Ras Laffan LNG export facility, with a combined annual capacity of 12.8 million metric tons, require repairs expected to take three to five years. QatarEnergy estimated the damage would cost about $20 billion in annual lost revenue. The company’s remaining plants have an annual export capacity of 64.2 million metric tons. The Strait of Hormuz is mostly closed to vessel traffic, however, and QatarEnergy is unable to ship LNG to its customers in Asia and Europe.

The two biggest U.S. LNG exporters, Cheniere Energy and Venture Global, both plan expansions at plants in Louisiana and Texas. Cheniere currently has an operational capacity of about 56 million metric tons a year. QatarEnergy expects its annual LNG exports will reach 110 million metric tons in 2029.

Ed Hirs, director of energy market studies at the University of Houston, noted that QatarEnergy is the world’s lowest-cost producer and said it can afford to revise corporate strategies quickly.

“They have to find a way to diversify and maintain their contracts. And they're playing an exceedingly long game — taking a long view of the global LNG market,” Hirs told The Center Square.

Hirs pointed to surging "associated gas" production that comes along with oil drilling in the Permian Basin, where oil production reached a record 6.8 million barrels per day in September, about 50% of total U.S. production. "The marginal cost in the Permian right now is virtually nothing," Hirs said. "They have to move the gas someplace. This is what is making U.S. natural gas extremely competitive for the time being."

In Qatar, the marginal cost of gas production is about 5 cents per thousand cubic feet, while in other rival American shale plays like the Marcellus and Utica basins, industry analysts estimate operating expenses at between $1.50 and $1.75 per thousand cubic feet, Hirs said.

Under Louisiana’s Industrial Tax Exemption Program, Woodside’s Calcasieu Parish LNG facility secured a $2.8 billion property tax exemption over 10 years, according to a 2025 study by the Sierra Club. Woodside promised the plant would employ 350 permanent full-time workers.

When construction began on the Calcasieu Parish LNG plant in 2025, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry touted Woodside’s development project as “the largest foreign investment in Louisiana’s history" and said the construction phase would result in more than 4,000 temporary jobs.

Cheniere’s Sabine Pass LNG plant in Johnson Bayou in Cameron Parish received a $4.9 billion property tax exemption over 10 years, while Louisiana Economic Development estimates the number of new full-time jobs created in the region at 1,096.

The price of a share of Cheniere Energy closed Friday at an all-time high of $318.94, up 35.3% since the end of February when the U.S.-Israel war with Iran began. Venture Global shares have rallied 53.3% since the war began to $14.79 at market close on Friday. Reuters reported that the company is in talks to supply QatarEnergy from one of its Louisiana LNG plants.