* Cheniere's Asian customers seek LNG amid Middle East

supply cuts

* Fusco emphasizes safety and reliability despite high

demand

* Cheniere expects LNG growth from Asia, despite market

shocks

(Rewrites throughout)

By Curtis Williams

HOUSTON, March 25 (Reuters) - U.S. LNG exporter Cheniere

Energy's Asian customers are asking for more liquefied

natural gas amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East that

has cut supplies from Qatar, CEO Jack Fusco told the CERAWeek

conference in Houston on Wednesday, adding that his company is

already running at full capacity.

Fusco said he is hopeful Cheniere can start commercial

operations at its Train 5 expansion at Corpus Christi,

Louisiana, by Friday to get more cargoes to Asia.

QatarEnergy was producing 20% of the world's LNG, but its

plants have been shut as a result of the U.S.-Israeli war with

Iran and sustained damage from airstrikes. The company said it

could lose 17% of its present supply for up to five years.

Fusco said the last set of cargoes from QatarEnergy has

arrived in Asia and there was no clear sense of when Qatar, the

world's second-largest LNG exporter, would resume operations.

Customers, meanwhile, are seeking more supplies from the U.S.

"We are trying to do whatever we can do. We're looking at

our maintenance schedules really hard, but at the end of the

day, we have to be safe and we have to be reliable. We don't

want to sacrifice anything to get that last drop out," Fusco

said.

Europe remains the market of choice for Cheniere, Fusco

said, with 1,600 cargoes landed on the continent since the start

of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but he expects LNG

growth will come from Asia.

Shocks to the LNG market are harmful to demand growth

because higher prices take some countries out of the market,

Fusco said, adding the latest conflict emphasized the need for

diversity of supply.

Cheniere is the largest U.S. LNG exporter. Last year the

company exported 46 million metric tons of the superchilled gas

and expects to export 52 million tons in 2026.