Sana'a, Yemen - Yemen started on Thursday the production of liquefied gas from a plant operated by an international consortium led by French oil major Total, a company statement said.

"Total announces that the Yemen LNG liquefaction plant started producing Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) on October 15, 2009," the statement said.

"Yemen LNG's first cargo is scheduled in the coming weeks," the company said, without giving an exact date.

The 4.5-billion-dollar LNG project is the largest-ever industrial project in Yemen, a small non-OPEC oil producer that pumps around 330,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

The gas will be exported to both the Asian and Atlantic markets.

Once further construction work is completed, the plant will ultimately have a total production capacity of 6.7 million tons of LNG per year.

The project is run by the Yemen Liquefied Natural Gas Company, which is a joint venture grouping the state-owned Yemen Gas Company, French oil giant Total, US Hunt Oil Company, as well as Kogas and Hyundai from South Korea.

The LNG exporting project in the south-eastern port of Balhaf on the Arabian Sea was initially due to start this month. (dpa)