Qatar LNG Hit With 29 Cargo Cancellations as US Replaces Gulf Energy Supply

Qatar Energy declared force majeure on liquefied natural gas exports, cancelling 29 shipments and disrupting roughly 3.8 billion cubic metres of gas through November, according to industry disclosures cited in regional energy reporting. The cancellations affect long-term contracted volumes to buyers in Asia and Europe, forcing counterparties to seek replacement cargoes on the spot market at a moment when global LNG supply is already tightening heading into the winter demand season. The disruption comes as US energy exporters move quickly to fill the resulting gap, expanding their share of the global gas trade at Qatar's expense. Washington's push extends beyond gas: the Trump administration is separately pursuing a 100-year oil concession in Venezuela covering an estimated 65 billion barrels of reserves, a deal that would lock in US access to one of the world's largest untapped crude reserves for the better part of a century. Together, the two developments illustrate a broader pattern in which instability and supply disruptions among traditional Gulf energy exporters create openings that American firms are positioned to exploit, reshaping long-standing energy relationships built over decades. Qatar, the world's leading LNG exporter alongside the United States and Australia, has built its economic and diplomatic weight substantially on the reliability of its gas supply contracts, making sustained force majeure disruptions a meaningful test of that reputation. The scale of the cancelled volumes, 3.8 billion cubic metres, represents a significant share of Qatar's export capacity for the affected period, with the full commercial and diplomatic fallout likely to become clearer as buyers finalize alternative sourcing arrangements before winter demand peaks.