Japan's JX, Petronas start Malaysia LNG train

TOKYO, Jan 23 (Reuters) - JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp said its venture with Malaysian state oil firm Petronas has started commercial operations at the ninth liquefaction train at the Petronas LNG complex in Bintulu, Sarawak.

The train, with a production capacity of 3.6 million tonnes of LNG per year, started on Jan. 1.

JX Nippon Oil, a unit of Japan's biggest oil refiner JX Holdings, last June bought a 10 percent equity stake in a Petronas subsidiary that was developing the ninth train in Malaysia's Sarawak state.

With the launch of the ninth train, the Petronas LNG complex now has the capacity to produce about 30 million tonnes per year, JX said in a statement. (Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori; Editing by Joseph Radford)