Qatargas will start loading liquefied natural gas (LNG) from its Qatargas 4 Train 7 facility in February 2011, the company's chief operating officer said.

'It will start loading in February and the first cargo will leave in February,' Ahmed al-Khulaifi told Reuters on the sidelines of an industry seminar.

He also said the firm's Qatargas 3 Train 6 would start loading in late November or early December.

'Train 6 is loading in late November/early December and leaving in December,' he said. 'This is the target.'

Qatar is the world's biggest exporter of LNG, or gas cooled to liquid form so it can be transported by tankers.

Qatargas Trains 6 and 7 will each have capacity to produce 7.8 million tonnes of gas a year, and Train 7 is the last of the LNG plants that Qatar is building on the way to reaching target LNG capacity of 77 million tonnes per year. – Reuters