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By Salma El Wardany and Stephen Stapczynski
QatarEnergy is pushing back the start of a major liquefied natural gas expansion project to at least 2027 after a drone attack last week that forced the unprecedented closure of its Ras Laffan plant.
Production from the North Field East facility will now target its first export early next year, assuming the outage at Ras Laffan extends for a month or less, according to people with knowledge of the situation, who declined to be named as the information is not public.
A more prolonged closure, as the war in the Persian Gulf escalates, would delay the start further, the people said.
Qatar’s project is part of a record wave of new supply set to flood the market through the rest of the decade. However, the hold-up at the North Field East facility — which has a total production capacity of 32 million tons per year — would also push back the emergence of an LNG glut.
Qatar had already pushed the project back to the end of this year in early February. The reason for that delay was not immediately clear, though large developments are often held up as start-up nears, to provide time to iron out engineering issues.
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Qatar’s energy minister Saad Al-Kaabi had said in an interview with the Financial Times last week that the expansion project could be delayed, but gave no timeline. The project is part of a record wave of new supply that was set to flood the market through the rest of the decade.
QatarEnergy didn’t respond to a request for comment.
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