The world's top liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter Qatar has sent its first shipment of LNG to be carried on giant new tankers to top energy consumer the United States, Qatargas said on its website on Wednesday.

The new tankers have capacity of around 216,000 cu m for the gas chilled to its liquid form, about 60 per cent larger than Qatargas' current fleet of vessels with capacity of around 135,000 cu m.

The vessels are known as Q-Flex and are part of a new fleet to carry Qatar's expanding LNG exports. Qatar loaded the first Q-Flex in December for delivery to Japan.

The cargo is the second to arrive at the new US Sabine Pass LNG terminal in southwest Louisiana. The terminal is owned by Cheniere Energy and received its first cargo in April.

The terminal cost around $1.5 billion to build and will be capable of reheating and pumping around 2.6 billion cubic feet of gas per day into the US gas system.

Qatar plans to more than double its LNG capacity to 77 million tonnes in 2010 from around 31 million tonnes. Qatargas is one of two companies producing LNG in Qatar. The other is Rasgas and both are majority owned by state oil company Qatar Petroleum. - Reuters