Qatar's energy minister says one of the Gulf state's gas supply firms expects to ship a record 8.3 million tons of liquefied natural gas to South Korea this year.

Mohammed bin Saleh al-Sada was quoted by the official Qatar News Agency late Monday as saying the shipments by state-controlled RasGas would account for nearly a quarter of South Korea's gas needs.

Al-Sada says RasGas ships more than 7 million tons of LNG to South Korea annually under long-term contracts, with the rest sold at spot prices. He says Qatar is now the Asian nation's largest supplier of the super-cooled fuel.

Qatar holds the world's third largest natural gas reserves, and is the biggest supplier of LNG.