State-owned energy company Qatar Petroleum (QP) joined an international consortium of major U.S., European and Japanese energy companies to develop an LNG import project in Pakistan.

The consortium, which includes U.S.-based ExxonMobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM), France's Total, Japan's Mitsubishi and Norway's Hoegh, will develop a project supplying natural gas to Pakistan that includes a floating storage and regasification unit, a jetty and a pipeline leading to shore, QP said in a statement on Feb. 7.

"Forming this consortium...represents a significant milestone that complements Pakistan's successful effort to meet the growing demand for clean-burning natural gas in this important market," QP's CEO Saad Sherida al-Kaabi said in the statement.