ConocoPhillips Shrugs Off Qatari LNG Delays as a Matter of Months

ConocoPhillips said on Thursday that any delay to its Qatar LNG project would likely be in months rather than a year or more and it does not expect any impact on free cash flow.

The US oil and gas producer is a partner in QatarEnergy's main LNG project, which includes offshore facilities in the North Field and onshore facilities at Ras Laffan.

"We're expecting any delays that may come on first gas or first cargo to be in the nature of months, you know, not a full year," a ConocoPhillips executive said on a post-earnings call.

Planned maintenance at Ras Laffan was completed during the second quarter and a ramp-up in production is expected in the third quarter, the executive added.

The US-Iran war has forced QatarEnergy, one of the world's biggest LNG exporters, to shut liquefaction trains, declare force majeure on deliveries and suspend exports.

Qatar accounts for about a fifth of global LNG trade, and a prolonged outage would tighten supplies and raise prices for key buyers.

(Reporting by Pooja Menon in Bengaluru and Arathy Somasekhar in Houston; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli and Joyjeet Das)