Royal Dutch Shell said it had delayed one of its largest schemes by around a year with start-up for the $8 billion Qatargas 4 liquefied natural gas project now planned for late 2010 and the first cargo possibly pushed into 2011, newswire Reuters reports today.
The delay, which a Shell spokeswoman told Reuters was due to contractors struggling to keep up with the pace of developments in Qatar’s gas industry.
“We had been planning for a start-up in early 2010 but now we expect that to come in late 2010,” the spokeswoman said on Monday, adding the slippage represented a delay of 10 months.
It remains unconfirmed when first cargoes would load but a statement from the company said ramp-up of the project could continue into 2011, raising the prospect the facility may not be in a position to load ships until then.
Further delays are possible, with industry analysts at Waterborne LNG saying they expect first cargoes in mid 2011.
Qatargas 4 will produce 7.8 million tonnes of LNG each year, equivalent to 280,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
Qatar Petroleum owns 70 percent of the project, while Shell owns the rest. Gas will be exported to China and Dubai under oil price-linked contracts which will make the project highly profitable, analysts said. – Reuters
