Qatar LNG j/v to sell $2.3 bln bonds for expansion

* JV partners are Qatar Petroleum, ExxonMobil

* Bonds to help finance LNG expansion, export facilities

* HSBC, Credit Suisse, Citi mandated

By John Irish

DUBAI, July 9 (Reuters) - A joint venture between Qatar Petroleum and Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) plans to sell up to $2.3 billion in bonds to finance the expansion of LNG facilities, said a spokesman for HSBC, one of the managers of the sale.

Ratings agencies Moody's, S&P and Fitch on Wednesday gave ratings to the notes, which will help fund Qatar's RasGas's liquefied natural gas (LNG) trains 6 and 7 and outstanding loans. S&P assigned an A rating, Moody's AA2 and Fitch A+.

LNG is gas chilled to liquid form for export. Gas processing plants that chill the gas are known as trains.

Qatar, the world's top LNG exporter, plans to double its capacity this year to 62 million tonnes per year as it brings online the world's largest trains, including RasGas train 6.

RasGas, one of two LNG producers in Qatar, has a $665 million bond maturing in September, according to Reuters data.

Qatari state-affiliated firms are eyeing between $3 billion and $4 billion in bond sales this year to refinance debt and finance new projects as spreads narrow, Abdul-Rahman al-Shaibi, a member of Qatar's State Finance Policy Committee said in June.

RasGas's new debt will be structured as a 144a issue, meaning the bond can only be sold to certain institutional investors in the United States.

HSBC, Credit Suisse and Citigroup will manage the sale, an HSBC spokesman said.

The bonds are expected to be structured as a $500 million issue with three-year maturity, a five-year $1.115 billion bond and 10-year notes worth $615 million which would be repaid from project cash flows, S&P said.

The sale forms part of a $10 billion programme launched in 2005. London-based MEED reported on June 17 that RasGas aimed to complete the deal by the end of July.

Investors have shown strong appetite for recent Qatar government entity bond sales. State-controlled Qatar Telecommunications Co QTEL.QA saw its debut $1.5 billion bond in June oversubscribed eight times, receiving bids exceeding $13 billion. That followed the government's successful $3 billion benchmark bond, launched in early April.

RasGas expects the start-up of its train 7 to be in late 2009. Exxon Mobil, the biggest foreign investor in Qatar, holds a 30 percent stake in each of train 6 and train 7 and the remainder is owned by state-run Qatar Petroleum.

The other LNG producer in Qatar is Qatargas.

For a factbox on Qatar's LNG projects click on [ID:nL9356091]

(editing by John Stonestreet)