(EnergyAsia, April 5 2011, Tuesday) — Qatar is producing its maximum 77 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) a year thanks to last week’s boost from Qatargas to add to RasGas’s production.

Qatargas said it achieved an “historic milestone” operating all seven of its liquefaction trains at capacity to produce 42 million tonnes of LNG a year. RasGas, Qatar’s other state-owned gas producing company, is already producing 35 million tonnes of LNG a year.

Khalid Bin Khalifa Al Thani, Qatargas CEO, said:

“With this, Qatargas is now fully contributing its significant share to Qatar’s vision of producing 77 million tonnes a year.

“For Qatargas, this underscores the fact that we are now officially the largest LNG producer in the world. This is coupled with the responsibility of operating all our projects safely, reliably and environmentally responsibly, continuing to satisfy our customers in all four corners of the globe.

“This is a new era for Qatargas as we now become a fully operational company and all the expansion projects have now been handed over to the Qatargas Operating Company from the project teams.”

Established in 1984, Qatargas owns and operates seven LNG trains, of which four are the largest in the world – known as mega trains – each with a production capacity of 7.8 million tonnes a year.