Qatari liquefied natural gas producer Rasgas plans seven maintenance shutdowns in 2012.

In June, Rasgas announced plans to shut its 7.8 million tonne per year LNG export facility known as Train 7, for maintenance in January 2012. But it plans to shut Train 7 again for work in October 2012 as part of a wide ranging program of shutdowns next year.

The Rasgas official said that "The first (Train 7) will be in January Trains 1 and 2 will be shut in May and Train 7 will be down in October. We will also shut AKG-2 (Al Khaleej Gas Two) in March. AKG-2 processes gas for use in Qatar while processing associated condensate and natural gas liquids while trains 1 and 2 produce up to 6.6 million tonne per annum of LNG for export around the world.

He said that Rasgas performs on average between 5 and 6 maintenance shutdowns on its large gas liquefaction plants each year. He was unable to give details of the other two maintenance shutdowns planned for next year. We try to do the maintenance at off-peak seasons, which are at different times for different customers.

Rasgas, JV between Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil is one of two producers in Qatar which together can produce 77 million tonnes a year of gas chilled to liquid form for export by ship.

(Sourced from Reuters)