(Adds details, market and shipping impact)
By Oleg Vukmanovic
May 8 (Reuters) - A loss of power supply since May 5 hashurt production of liquefied natural gas (LNG) at Australia'sNorth West Shelf export plant, a spokesperson for operatorWoodside Petroleum said on Friday.
A lasting outage could tighten fuel supplies to Asianmarkets and might help to underpin a recovery for spot LNGprices which have been struggling to absorb a glut of supplyamid weak demand.
"On Tuesday, May 5 an electrical incident occurred at theNorth West Shelf Project's Karratha Gas Plant (KGP) resulting ina loss of power supply," the spokesperson said.
"LNG production has been impacted and we are working toresume production." Pipeline gas production has not beenaffected, the spokesperson said.
North West Shelf supplies Asian markets with around 16.3million tonnes of LNG each year.
The Karratha gas plant facilities include five LNGprocessing plants, or trains, two domestic gas trains as well asstorage facilities for LNG and other fuels, according toWoodside's website.
The 126,942 cubic metre capacity Northwest Snipe LNG tanker,one of the project's seven vessels, has been circling outsideport for several days, live ship-tracking data on Reuters Eikonshows. So has the 126,815 cubic metre capacity NorthwestSeaeagle.
Another project vessel, the Northwest Swan, returning from adelivery to Singapore should arrive on Saturday, according toship data. Two further tankers off the facility, the Dapeng Starand Dapeng Moon, had dropped anchor.
The six stakeholders in the LNG plant are BHP Billiton, BP, Chevron, Japan Australia LNG, Shell and Woodside, which operates the plant. (Reporting by Oleg Vukmanovic in Milan; editing by David Clarkeand Jane Merriman)
