Qatar's Barzan Gas Project to Start in November

Qatar will begin operations at its Barzan gas project in November, two people close to the matter told Reuters on Sunday, as the Gulf state strives to meet rising domestic energy demand as it prepares to host the soccer World Cup in 2022.

The $10 billion project, a RasGas-operated joint venture between Qatar Petroleum and Exxon Mobil (XOM), was originally expected to come online in 2014.

It will boost Qatari gas production by up to 2 billion cubic feet per day when it reaches capacity in the first half of 2017, the sources said on condition of anonymity because the information was not public.

RasGas and Exxon Mobil representatives were not immediately available to comment.

Qatar, the world's leading LNG exporter, faces growing domestic energy needs as it pursues a $200 billion infrastructure upgrade ahead of the World Cup tournament as well as expansion of its national airline Qatar Airways.

Much of the production from Barzan, located in the North Field gas reservoir off the coast of Qatar, will be directed to the power and water sector, RasGas has said.

Qatar declared a moratorium in 2005 on development of North Field, which it shares with Iran, to give Doha time to study the impact on the reservoir from a rapid increase in output.

(Reporting by Tom Finn; Editing by David Goodman)