SAN FRANCISCO, July 12: Qatar and US oil company ConocoPhillips on Friday confirmed, as expected, an agreement that could fetch $5 billion and will send liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Gulf nation to the United States by the end of the decade.

Kristi DesJarlais, a ConocoPhillips spokeswoman, said the cost of the tentative agreement included around 12 LNG tankers and an LNG terminal built by Qatar and ConocoPhillips in the Gulf nation that will supply the US market with 7.5 million tonnes of LNG a year starting around 2008-2009.

The figure also involves the cost of regasifying LNG from its supercooled state in the United States, she said.

DesJarlais said completion of a study, agreed by Qatar and ConocoPhillips in Washington Friday and first reported Thursday by Reuters, was likely to be completed by mid-2004.

When the study is finished, ConocoPhillips will announce various details of the project, including where the LNG will be regasified in the United States.

On Thursday, Faisal al-Suwaidi, vice-chairman of Qatar Liquefied Gas Co. Ltd., told Reuters LNG would be delivered to the US Gulf of Mexico, home to one existing LNG terminal and where several onshore and offshore terminals have been proposed.

According to the preliminary plans, an LNG terminal built in the Gulf nation by Qatar and ConocoPhillips would supply the US market over 25 years with about 1 billion to 1.2 billion cubic feet of gas a day.

Several projects have been announced recently to boost LNG deliveries to the United States, where dwindling domestic gas supplies and steep demand from power plants have triggered warnings by federal officials of the need to boost gas imports to tame gas prices that are nearly twice their year-ago levels.

ConocoPhillips will buy the LNG and be responsible for regasifying and marketing the fuel in the United States.

Qatar is already one of the biggest LNG suppliers to the United States and is a major exporter to Asia.—Reuters