Trade, Industry and Energy Minister Bang Moon Kyu met with Qatar’s Minister of State for Energy Affairs Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi on September 27 in Seoul on the occasion of the latter’s first visit to Korea in four years, to discuss measures for strengthening the two countries’ energy and shipbuilding supply chain.

Even amid uncertainties across the global energy market, Korea and Qatar have maintained cooperative relations as mutually largest LNG trading partners, their bilateral trade value reaching approximately USD 17.1 billion as of 2022, an all-time high. In 2022 alone, the two countries signed shipbuilding contracts for 54 LNG carriers, and more projects are to follow over the second half of 2023.

Minister Bang assessed that Korea and Qatar have established longstanding trust based on stable LNG supply and proposed that they continue to build a mutually beneficial and sustainable partnership through diversification of energy sources, such as hydrogen and renewable energy, in addition to LNG.

During the ministerial talks, the two countries’ ministers sought practical measures to expand cooperation, such as potential opportunities for investment in various energy sectors like renewable energy expansion, hydrogen and ammonia production and utilization, as well as technology and people-to-people exchange. They also agreed to cooperate on producing further outcomes from high-level exchanges in the future.