QatarEnergy, one of the ​world's biggest liquefied natural gas (LNG) suppliers, signed an agreement on Tuesday with Japan's ⁠biggest power generator Jera to supply 3 million tons per year of LNG ⁠for 27 ‌years.

The agreement, which took place on the sidelines of LNG2026 industry conference in Doha, Qatar, would help to ⁠stengthen Qatar's position in the Japanese market, as competition intensifies from the United States and from neighbouring Gulf suppliers, the United Arab Emirates and Oman, which offer more flexible contract terms. It follows months ⁠of protracted talks between the ​two firms. Reuters first reported the talks in May 2025.

Qatar dominated the Japanese market ‍in the past and was among Japan's top three LNG suppliers a decade ago, ​shipping over 15-16 mtpa to the East Asian country between 2012-2014. In 2025, Qatari LNG exports to Japan stood at 3.59 million tons.

Exports declined as buyers showed preference for supplies from the United States, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. These suppliers all offer shorter-term contracts and unlike Qatar do not restrict the cargoes' final destination.

Jera has been working on diversifying its supply sources to meet demand growth spurred by ⁠data centres and AI. Handling between 30-35 ‌million metric tons (mt) of LNG annually, Japan's largest utility currently sources nearly half of this from the Asia Pacific region, including Australia, Malaysia ‌and Indonesia.

(Reporting by ⁠Youssef Saba in Doha; Additional reporting by Emily Chow; Writing Marwa Rashad ⁠in London; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Nina Chestney)