Royal Dutch Shell said it had delayed its $8bn Qatargas 4 liquefied natural gas project by around a year, with startup now planned for late 2010 and first cargo possibly pushed into 2011.

 “We had been planning for a startup in early 2010 but now we expect that to come in late 2010,” a spokeswoman said in London yesterday, adding the slippage represented a delay of 10 months. The delay was due to contractors struggling to keep up with the pace of developments in Qatar’s gas industry, the spokeswoman said.