Total announces that the Yemen LNG liquefaction plant started producing Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) on October 15, 2009. Total is lead shareholder of Yemen LNG and holds a 39.62% interest, alongside the state-owned company Yemen Gas Company (16.73%), Hunt Oil Company (17.22%), SK Energy (9.55%), Korea Gas Corporation (6%), Hyundai Corporation (5.88%), and GASSP1 (5%).

The Yemen LNG project, which will have required an overall US $4.5 billions investment, is the most important investment ever made in Yemen. It consists in supplying gas from Block 18, located in the Marib region in central Yemen, through a 320 kilometers dedicated pipeline to the LNG plant located at the port of Balhaf on the southern coast of the country. The plant started production with the first train while the construction of the second train is being completed. Total production capacity will reach 6.7 millions tons of LNG per year (Mt/y).

Following the three gas sales agreements signed in 2005 with Kogas, GDF-Suez and Total Gas & Power Ltd., LNG from Yemen LNG will be exported to both the Asian and Atlantic markets.

“The production start of Yemen LNG is the successful outcome of a cooperation between Total and its partners over the last decade. Since Yemen’s gas potential was discovered, Total has supported Yemen in developing its gas industry and in becoming an LNG exporter,” declared Yves-Louis Darricarrère, President of Total Exploration & Production. “Yemen LNG is also an important milestone in the fulfilment of Total’s objective to reinforce the Group’s position as a leading LNG producer.”

Yemen LNG’s first cargo is scheduled in the coming weeks.

(Rigzone)