Sources say that Trinidad's Atlantic LNG has shut down its processing unit to perform maintenance.

Gerald Ramdeen, the Chairman of the National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago (NGC) and two other people familiar with the operation, said that the flagship?LNG?facility of Trinidad and Tobago shut down its Train 4 processing unit for planned maintenance on Tuesday.

Sources said that the outage could last for nearly two months and affect as much as 50% of Atlantic LNG’s total production capacity. The Caribbean's liquefied natural gas supply is now more limited in the short-term due to the interruption. Global markets are already constrained by the loss of Qatari volumes.

Ramdeen said on Tuesday that the shutdown was planned and not related to any operational problem, fault or unplanned interruption. The plant is owned jointly by Shell BP NGC.

Shell, BP, and Atlantic LNG have not responded to comments immediately.

Atlantic LNG is Latin America's biggest liquefied?gas export facility. It has the ability to ship around 12 million metric tonnes of LNG per year. Train 4, with a?capacity of approximately 6 mtpa is about the same size as Golden Pass LNG's Train 1 which was recently put into service in the U.S.

In recent years, the complex has been struggling due to declining natural gas supplies in the United States. This has impacted output and forced decisions on operational matters. Last year, Atlantic LNG permanently closed its smallest unit Train?1. This removed approximately 3.5 mtpa of capacity and marked a'significant step down in overall production.

The closure of Train 4 shows the impact that feedgas shortages, maintenance cycles and Trinidad's LNG imports continue to have. Curtis Williams, Houston. Nathan Crooks, editing.

(source: Reuters)