<div><span style="font-size: 1rem;">US oil giant ConocoPhillips on Sunday agreed to take another major stake in Qatar's expansion of natural gas production, the Gulf state's energy minister said.</span><br></div><div><br></div><div>Energy Minister Saad Sherida al-Kaabi also said Qatar was talking with Asian nations -- the major market for Qatari gas -- over a share in its campaign to increase annual production by 60 percent to 126 million tonnes a year by 2027.</div><div><br></div><div>ConocoPhillips will have a 6.25 percent share in Qatar's North Field South project, part of the world's biggest proven natural gas reserves, Kaabi said at a signing ceremony with the US firm's chairman Ryan Lance.</div><div><br></div><div>France's TotalEnergies and Britain's Shell both have 9.37 percent stakes in the field, while state-owned Qatar Energy has the remaining 75 percent.</div><div><br></div><div>Industry sources said the foreign firms are paying a total of about $5 billion for the joint 25 percent share in North Field South that will produce about 16 million tonnes of gas a year.</div><div><br></div><div>ConocoPhillips and the other Western firms also took key stakes in North Field East this year.</div><div><br></div><div>Kaabi told a press conference the latest deal "further strengthens our long and fruitful strategic relationship" with the US company.</div><div><br></div><div>Lance called it a "another milestone in our company's business presence in Qatar".</div><div><br></div><div>Despite Europe's campaign to secure new gas supplies, Japan, South Korea, China and India are the major markets for Qatar, which is locked into long-term deals with the Asian nations.</div><div><br></div><div>Kaabi said the nations could take "a small equity participation" in the expansion. "That discussion is still ongoing with several Asian buyers."</div><div><br></div><div>The two officials both hit out at reports that the US administration could limit exports of oil and other energy products in a bid to keep down US prices.</div><div><br></div><div>Lance said that restricting what goes onto global markets would increase international and US prices. "It's a policy, or a thought, that has short term impacts, but long term it is not good for the United States," he said.</div><div><br></div><div>Kaabi, whose country has reaped big profits from the international price surge, said "market dynamics" should dictate prices and volumes.</div><div><br></div><div>"Any restriction -- whether it is Asian, European or American -- to try to cut oil price by limiting supply, is not something that will be helpful to the market in the long term," he warned.</div><div><br></div><div>"Either way it will be damaging to free trade."</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd24/fas</div>