“For Qatar, this serves as a counterbalance to the Saudi-U.S. relationship,” said Leslie Palti-Guzman, president of GasVista, a New York-based consulting firm. “Saudi Arabia and Qatar right now are looking to invest in the U.S. liquefied natural gas play, and both think it’s going to carry favor with the Trump administration.”

The administration has attempted periodically to mediate Qatar’s dispute with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates and Egypt since the Saudi-led bloc cut economic and diplomatic ties with Qatar in 2017. But President Trump has sent conflicting signals about his intentions by, at times, appearing to support Saudi Arabia and its allies in the dispute.

Qatar has long leveraged its gas wealth to exert political influence around the Middle East and North Africa, with television broadcasting, financial support for Hamas in Gaza and alliances with Muslim Brotherhood chapters and militia groups around the region. The country also hosts a major American military base.

Qatar Petroleum has been a big investor in Golden Pass for years. Originally the giant terminal in Sabine Pass, Tex., was designed to import gas, and cost $2 billion to build about a decade ago. But the frenzy of natural gas drilling in shale fields created a domestic glut, and the facility has been dormant for the last eight years.

Exxon Mobil and Qatar Petroleum will reverse some pipelines and add several enormous refrigerant plants to Golden Pass. The plants will cool gas to minus-260 degrees Fahrenheit and condense it into a liquid to be loaded onto tankers and shipped to Latin America, Asia and Europe.