Qatar threatens to end LNG supplies to EU over directive; Exxon says it may exit

Qatar will stop supplying liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the European Union unless the bloc finds a way to ease or repeal the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD). Qatar’s energy minister Saad al-Kaabi said this at an energy conference in Abu Dhabi, according to Reuters. The head of US oil major ExxonMobil, Darren Woods, also warned at the same forum about the directive’s impact. He said Exxon would have to cease trading in the EU if the directive takes effect in its current form.

"If we’re unable to be a successful company in Europe, and more importantly, if they begin to try to impose their harmful legislation around the world where we operate, it will be impossible to stay there," Woods said at the ADIPEC conference in Abu Dhabi.

Qatar is the world’s second-largest LNG exporter after the United States. Most of its exports go to Asia, while it ranks third among LNG suppliers to Europe, with an 11 percent share. Qatar’s output is expected to rise soon. State-owned QatarEnergy, whose CEO is Minister Kaabi, will produce its first LNG from the expansion of its vast North Field project in the middle of next year, according to Kaabi. The original plan was to achieve this later this year.

“At full capacity, the North Field expansion project should produce 126 million tonnes of LNG a year by 2027, increasing QatarEnergy’s output by around 85 percent from the current 77 million tonnes a year,” Kaabi said.

At the end of October, Kaabi and his US counterpart Chris Wright sent a joint letter on the issue to EU heads of state. They wrote that the directive poses a significant risk to the availability and reliability of vital energy supplies for households and businesses across Europe, and an existential threat to the EU economy’s future growth, competitiveness and resilience.

The European Parliament’s legal affairs committee backed plans in October to ease the directive, which it aims to push through by the end of the year. Qatar says the proposed changes do not address the key problems.

"Rather, it just clouds the language and, in my view, increases the risk even further by creating more room for interpretation," Woods added. His company is pushing for the directive to be repealed entirely.

The CSDDD requires large companies operating in the EU to check that their supply chains do not use forced labour or harm the environment. They face fines for failing to meet their obligations. Member states must transpose the directive into national law by June 2026. The largest companies must comply a year later, smaller companies two years later and the smallest three years later.

The European Union is seeking to partially replace gas supplies from Russia—which it sanctioned after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in 2022—with LNG from Qatar and the United States. In 2024, LNG accounted for 37 percent of the EU’s total natural gas imports. Supplies from the US and Qatar accounted for almost 60 percent of the EU’s total LNG imports.