TOKYO, March 14 (Reuters) - Global liquefied natural gas

price volatility caused by the Middle East crisis is "very

short-term", Mike Sabel, chief executive officer with Venture

Global ( VG ), told the Indo-Pacific Energy Security Ministerial

and Business Forum in Tokyo.

Some 20% of global LNG supply is now offline with

QatarEnergy LNG facilities shut amid the U.S.-Israeli war on

Iran, which has disrupted energy supplies from the Middle East.

It could take months to return to normal deliveries, Qatari

Energy Minister Saad al-Kaabi said last week.

"There's tremendous volatility in the markets," Sabel said.

"However, we view that it's very short-term, and we're

tremendously optimistic about the middle- and long-term strength

of the market, equity in the market, supply coming online. We

expect long-term, very stable liquefaction prices."

The average LNG price for April delivery into Northeast Asia

was estimated at $19.50 per million British thermal units

(mmBtu), down from $22.50/mmBtu in the previous week, which was

the highest level since mid-January 2023.

The price for May delivery was estimated at $18.90/mmBtu,

industry sources said.

U.S. liquefied natural gas developer Venture Global ( VG ), the

second-largest U.S. LNG exporter, on Friday said it will proceed

with phase 2 of its CP2 LNG project in Louisiana.

"We're going to add another 10 million tons (of LNG) to the

4 million tons of phase one," Sabel said.

"We expect actually the first and second phases will be

producing initial energy next year - it'll have a significant

impact on the fuel market prices pretty quickly."