DOHA (Dow Jones)--Qatargas Operating Co. Ltd will see the startup of the first of its four mega liquified natural gas trains by the end of 2008, increasing the company's annual LNG production to 17.8 million tons, the company's chairman and chief executive officer said.
"We should see the startup and production from the first super mega train by the end of the year, which should bring up our production capacity to 17.8 million tons from the current 10 million tons," Faisal Al Suwaidi told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview in Doha earlier this week.
Qatargas, which currently operates three LNG trains at Ras Laffan, expects its annual production to grow to 42 million tons a year by 2010, when all four mega trains are fully operational, Al Suwaidi said.
"The start up and commissioning of the second and third mega trains will come along early next year, and the fourth mega train should be up and running by 2010, with each enjoying a production capacity of 7.8 million tons a year," he said.
Qatar, which holds the world's third largest gas reserves after Russia and Iran, hopes to boost annual LNG production to 77 million tons a year by 2010 from Qatargas and Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Co., or Rasgas, both joint ventures between Qatar Petroleum and international partners.
"Plans are still on track to reach that level ... there are no delays," Al Suwaidi said.