Qatar is surging ahead with major projects as it reaffirms it position as the largest LNG producer in the world.

Qatari Energy Minister Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah said that Qatar’s LNG export capacity now stood at around 30 million tonnes per year, up from around 25 million tonnes in 2006.

The rapid growth of Qatar’s gas infrastructure has made it the largest LNG producer in the world, he said.

Qatar aims to increase LNG exports capacity to 77 million tonnes per year by 2010.

The country is home to the world’s third largest gas reserves after Russia and Iran.

Al Attiyah said the country would this year increase shipments of LNG to 31 million tonnes as it invests heavily in the energy sector.

Qatar last year became the world’s biggest exporter of LNG when its export capacity was about 25 million tonnes, pushing Indonesia into second place.

“We are working very hard to stabilise supply and demand,” the minister said.

Al Attiyah said Qatar aimed to invest more than $75 billion in the country’s oil and gas sector over the next five years.

He said the extra investment would boost oil production by 200,000 barrels per day to one million bpd, and gas output to four million barrels of oil equivalent per day by 2010.

Qatar is set to become a dominant force in the supply of LNG into a fast growing global market, PricewaterhouseCoopers said.

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Qatar’s Amir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani inaugurated RasGas Train 5 (the fifth train of Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Co) with a production capacity of 4.7 million tonnes of LNG per year at Ras Laffan Industrial City.

Train 5 is one of the world’s largest LNG production plants.

The majority of the LNG from Train 5 will head to European gas markets via various gas wholesalers including Belgian wholesaler Distrigas.

Train 5 has a production capacity of 4.7 million tonnes per year (tpy) of LNG making it one of the largest and most productive trains in the world.

Train 6 is scheduled to come onstream in 2008 and Train 7 in 2009.

RasGas said output from its new $1.7 billion train 5 LNG plant will be exported entirely to Europe.

“We are exporting to Belgium in Europe and from Belgium to the European grid,” Mohammed Saleh Al Sada, managing director of RasGas, said.

RasGas also added another tanker to its fleet. Al Jassasiya became the 13th LNG tanker for RasGas.

The foundation stone for the Qatargas 3 and Qatargas 4 projects were laid by Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Heir Apparent of the State of Qatar. 

The two projects are expected to generate approximately 2.8 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas, the majority of which is targeted for delivery to the US, a report said.

Both Qatargas 3 and Qatargas 4 have worked jointly to reach this important milestone in record pace and all the necessary resources to carry out the projects are now in place, the report said.

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The first LNG cargos from Qatargas 3 are expected to be delivered in 2009.  First LNG cargos from Qatargas 4 are scheduled for around the end of the decade.

Access to growing US natural gas markets is the key element in both the Qatargas 3 and Qatargas 4 LNG marketing strategies.

Qatargas CEO and vice-chairman Faisal M Al Suwaidi said: “Qatargas is supplying to Asia and will reach Europe by end of 2007 and the North American market by end of 2008.”

The start-up of the Qatargas II LNG project is expected in the second quarter of 2008, Qatar Petroleum executive Saad Sherida AlKaabi said.

“We had stretch targets to try and push our contractors - but second quarter (2008) is more likely than first quarter,” he said.

Marubeni Corp will take a a stake in the fourth stage of the giant Qatargas LNG project, which will supply it with about a million tonnes per y