(Bloomberg) — Qatar will sign a new deal for liquefied natural gas sales to Kuwait for 15 years, it’s second supply deal that will help ease the strain on power plants that have already been forced to cut output this summer.

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The agreement for Kuwait to buy as much as 2 million tons of LNG a year will be signed in Kuwait Monday, according to people familiar with the matter, requesting anonymity ahead of an official announcement. Qatar, which is already its biggest supplier with an existing contract running to 2035, will start shipments from the new deal next year, one of the people said.

Kuwait was forced to cut power supply earlier this year in a rare occurrence for the Middle Eastern petrostate as brutal summer heat increased demand, and gas supply wasn’t able to keep up. The Ministry of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy has warned controlled outages could be enforced in some areas throughout the hot months.

The latest deal will add to Qatar’s agreements with companies including TotalEnergies SE, Shell Plc, China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. and Taiwan’s CPC Corp., as it further expands its massive LNG projects. Still, it’s yet to tie up customers for all of the extra volume that will come from bolstering production capacity by 64% to 126 million tons a year. Doha is planning to push capability even further to 142 million tons by the end of the decade.

Qatar Energy didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Kuwait Outages

In Kuwait, the ministry of electricity earlier this month said that gas processing units at Kuwait National Petroleum Co. came to a complete halt, impacting supplies to turbines at two power plants and water desalination facilities. The ministry said it was forced to halt some generation units at Subiya and West Doha plants.

The increase in gas demand also comes after Kuwait decided to phase out burning oil to produce electricity. It boosted consumption far beyond its domestic production. The country imported 6.3 million tons of LNG in 2023, including spot cargoes, according to ship-tracking data monitored by Bloomberg.

Kuwait forecasts demand of 14 million tons per annum by 2035, the person said, as suggested by the scale of its importing infrastructure. It opened a 22 million ton-a-year terminal in 2021, the first permanent facility for receiving LNG on the Persian Gulf.

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–With assistance from Verity Ratcliffe.

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