Qatar LNG exports down on mega train unplanned outage

Exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatar’s Laffan liquefaction plant have been lower over the past few days as one of the facility’s trains have been down, three industry sources said.

LNG exports daily flows moving average data from Refinitiv shows loadings were down for the past week, according to Olumide Ajayi, senior LNG analyst.

Two of the sources said that train 6 at the facility was down for unplanned maintenance, without adding details on the reason for the outage.

The outage is expected to last until early March, another source said.

Qatar Energy did not immediately respond to a request for comment when contacted by Reuters after official working hours and ahead of the weekend in the Gulf.

Production from the mega train “Train 6” started in November 2010. It has capacity of 7.8 million tonnes per annum (mtpa).

Qatar, one of the world’s top LNG producers, has recently been approached by the U.S. to reroute gas supplies to Europe in case Russia attacks Ukraine and the United States imposes sanctions on Moscow. read more

It has most of its volumes locked up under long-term contracts mostly to Asian buyers but also sends cargoes to Europe.

Qatar Energy plans to grow it’s LNG output by 40% with the north field expansion project, expected to come online by 2026. Reporting by Marwa Rashad in London; additional reporting by Maha El Dahan in Dubai, Editing by Chizu Nomiyama