Qatar secures second major LNG supply deal with China

Under the deal, China will purchase four million metric tonnes of LNG annually from Qatar.

Qatar has signed a 27-year gas supply deal with China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), the Gulf nation’s second major gas supply deal with a Chinese state-controlled company in less than a year.

QatarEnergy and CNPC signed the agreement on Tuesday under which China will purchase four million metric tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) annually from the Gulf Arab state.

CNPC will also take an equity stake in the eastern expansion of Qatar’s North Field LNG project.

The stake is the equivalent of five percent of one LNG train with a capacity of eight million tonnes per year.

“Today we are signing two agreements that will further enhance our strong relations with one of the most important gas markets in the world and key market for Qatari energy products,” Saad al-Kaabi, the Gulf state’s energy minister and CEO of QatarEnergy, said.

In an identical deal, QatarEnergy sealed a 27-year supply agreement with China’s Sinopec in November for four million tonnes of LNG a year.

Asia, with an appetite for long-term sales and purchase agreements, has been ahead so far in securing gas from Qatar’s massive production expansion project.

Tuesday’s deal is QatarEnergy’s third deal to supply LNG from the expansion to an Asian buyer.

Qatar is the world’s top LNG exporter, and competition for LNG has ramped up since the start of the war in Ukraine, with Europe, in particular, requiring a large quantity to help replace Russian pipeline gas that used to make up almost 40 percent of the continent’s imports.

QatarEnergy had previously said it could give up to five percent stakes in the gas trains linked to its North Field expansion to what al-Kaabi described as “value-added partners”.

In April, China’s Sinopec became the first Asian energy company to become a “value-added” partner in the project.

QatarEnergy has also signed equity partnerships on the project with international oil companies, but has said it plans to retain a 75 percent stake in the North Field expansion, which will cost at least $30bn, including the construction of liquefaction export facilities.

As Beijing’s ties with the United States and Australia, Qatar’s two biggest LNG export rivals, are strained, Chinese national energy firms increasingly see Qatar as a safer target for resource investment.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

…………………………………………………………

Idris Elba Calls For Peaceful Sierra Leone Election

 British actor Idris Elba, who also has Sierra Leonean citizenship and heritage, has called for a peaceful general election in Sierra Leone, which will take place on Saturday.

“This election please let it be peaceful,” he said in a message in Pidgin English.

He reminded young people that they have the “power” in this vote, and that if the country is destroyed due to violence, it will be down to Sierra Leoneans to have to patch it back up again.
“Not only is the world watching,” he said, but the whole of Africa.
Saturday’s vote will be the country’s sixth presidential vote since a military takeover in 1992.

It will see the incumbent, President Julius Madaa Bio of the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) go up against Dr Samura Kamara of the All People’s Congress (APC).
There have been arrests of critical opposition voices in the run-up to the vote.
Elba’s comments come on the same day that the Commonwealth Observer Group in Sierra Leone, led by former Nigerian Vice President Professor Yemi Osinbajo, called for peaceful elections that will reflect the will of the people.

“The eyes of more than 2.5 billion people of the Commonwealth – more than 60% of whom are young people under the age of 30 – will be upon Sierra Leone. Watching, in solidarity and in hope,” Prof. Osinbajo said.

Source: BBC

…………………………………………………………

SA warning over wild cats roaming in Northern Cape

 Residents of part of South Africa’s Northern Cape province have been warned to be careful and be on the lookout for a cheetah and leopard roaming the streets.

State broadcaster SABC quoted a representative of an organisation cautioning that wildcats are dangerous and had been seen crossing roads close to a nearby town.

“It’s a bit of a concern they are hungry. They can walk 35km [22 miles] in one night. We have warned the community. The police have warned the community. I have been out telling the people,” Michelle Oppernan of Olifantshoek Animals is quoted as saying.

It is not clear if the cats have escaped from a game serve.

This was the case earlier in the year with incidents of wild cats, including tigers, on the loose which triggered safety warnings in areas of Gauteng province and the capital, Pretoria.

Source: BBC

…………………………………………………………

China slams Biden for equating President Xi Jinping to a dictator

China calls Biden’s remarks ‘extremely absurd and irresponsible’ a day after a fence-building visit to Beijing by top US diplomat Antony Blinken.

US President Joe Biden has likened his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to a dictator, just a day after his top diplomat left Beijing following a visit designed to ease the two countries’ strained ties.

Speaking at a Democratic Party fundraiser in northern California, Biden said Xi had been angered over an incident in February when a Chinese balloon – which Washington says was used for spying– flew over the United States before it was eventually shot down.

“The reason why Xi Jinping got very upset in terms of when I shot that balloon down with two box cars full of spy equipment is he didn’t know it was there,” Biden said.

“That’s a great embarrassment for dictators. When they didn’t know what happened. That wasn’t supposed to be going where it was. It was blown off course.”

The balloon incident exacerbated an already difficult US-China relationship, which was strained over issues from self-ruled Taiwan to semiconductors and human rights, and prompted Secretary of State Antony Blinken to postpone a planned visit to Beijing.

Blinken eventually travelled there last weekend, holding discussions with Foreign Minister Qin Gang, top foreign affairs official Wang Yi, and on Monday afternoon, Xi himself.

Although there were no major breakthroughs, Blinken and Xi did agree on the need to stabilise the rivalry between Washington and Beijing so it did not veer into conflict.

Although Biden indicated afterwards that he thought relations between the two countries were on the right path, his fundraiser comments risk renewed damage to the highly sensitive relationship.

China has called reported comments by Biden “extremely absurd and irresponsible.”

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning on Wednesday said Biden’s comments “go totally against facts and seriously violate diplomatic protocol, and severely infringe on China’s political dignity.”

“It is a blatant political provocation. China expresses strong dissatisfaction and opposition,” Mao said at a daily briefing.

“This is strong language. Beijing is clearly very angry about this,” Katrina Yu said, reporting for Al Jazeera from Beijing.

The remarks made by Biden, she added, would be “a blow to efforts to stabilise the US-China relationship, a relationship that Beijing says is at a record low”. It could also “endanger any plans for a future meeting” between Biden and Xi, Yu said.

Xi is serving an unprecedented third term as Chinese president and is China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong.

Biden, who is 80, is running for a second term as US president in the 2024 election.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

…………………………………………………………