Qatar's Rasgas plans 2-3 shutdowns this year-official

DOHA Jan 24 (Reuters) - Qatari liquefied natural gas (LNG) producer Rasgas plans two to three maintenance shutdowns in 2013, a company official from one of the world's biggest gas exporters said on Thursday.

"This is a planned, normal shutdown," Khaled al-Hemaidi, manufacturing manager for Rasgas told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in the Qatari capital, declining to specify dates for the shutdowns or which production facilities would be affected.

Rasgas, a joint venture between Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil, is one of two producers in Qatar which together can produce 77 million tonnes a year of gas chilled to liquid form for export by ship.

Gas producers typically carry out maintenance on their facilities during the summer for the northern hemisphere, where most of the world's gas is still consumed and where leading importers Japan, Korea and Britain use it for heating in winter.