Total's Yemen liquefied natural gas project will ship its first cargo in May 2009, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said on Wednesday, tehrantimes reported.
The date for the first shipment was a
few months later than the last estimate of early 2009. Rising costs, tight
markets for specialist equipment and more recently difficulty in securing
finance have led to energy project delays worldwide.
"At the beginning of May 2009, the first shipment of gas will be exported to
foreign markets," Saleh told journalists on a trip to the plant.
The project is the largest industrial investment in impoverished Yemen, and will cost a total of $4.1 billion, Yemeni officials said on Wednesday.
The plant will have capacity to produce 6.7 million tons per year of LNG, which
is gas chilled to liquid form for ease of transport.
The project was about 80 percent complete, the president said. First gas had
arrived at Belhaf from the south through a 320km pipeline from the Marib oil
basin, he added. The company was beginning to fill the plant's storage tanks.
Total is the main shareholder in Yemen LNG with a stake of 39.6 percent, while
US Hunt Oil holds 17.2 percent.
The plant will be Yemen's first LNG project. It will join other regional LNG
exporters Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
Qatar, the world's top LNG exporter, has also faced delays as it expands
capacity to 77 million tons per year in 2010 from around 38 million tons.
Qatargas' fourth LNG production facility started up in July, delayed from the
scheduled start the previous winter. Other Qatargas projects have also slipped.
Indonesia, the world's third-largest LNG exporter, has delayed its $5 billion
Tangguh plant several times, and last week pushed the start-up back to the
second quarter of 2009.
Yemen is a small oil producer with output of around 300,000 barrels per day.