Exxon Qatar gas output to hit 4bn cfd

Exxon Mobil natural gas output in Qatar would reach 4 billion cubic feet per day (cfd) when all its projects there reach full capacity, senior Exxon executive Mark Albers said on Tuesday.Exxon is the biggest foreign investor in Qatar, the world's largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG). It has a stake in all four of the giant LNG projects starting up this year to double Qatar's LNG export capacity to 62 million tonnes per year (tpy) from 31 million tpy.

"Once all the projects in Qatar are at capacity we will be producing about 4 billion cfd of gas," Albers told reporters at a news conference after Qatar inaugurated an LNG production plant.

Another gas project in which Exxon has a stake, known as Al-Khaleej 2, would come on line in the next couple of months, said Hamad al-Mohannadi, the chief executive of Qatar state-controlled LNG producer RasGas. That project has capacity to pump 1.25 billion cfd.

Exxon is relying on Qatar for most of its global production growth this year. 

The Golden Pass LNG import terminal in the United States would start operations in mid-2010, Albers reiterated.

Golden Pass is on the US Gulf coast and would have import capacity of 2 billion cfd. Qatar Petroleum would own 70 percent of the terminal, with Exxon and ConocoPhillips owning the rest.

RasGas is one of two LNG producers in Qatar. The other is Qatargas. Exxon has a stake in projects controlled by both companies. (Reuters)