RasGas Company Limited (RasGas) has on Wednesday announced that Train 1 of its Barzan Gas Project (BGP), which will play a significant role in meeting Qatar’s fast growing domestic energy demand, is more than 95 percent complete and is rapidly ramping up for first production of clean-burning natural gas in the first quarter of 2015, the company said in a press release.
Construction work on Train 2 is also progressing well with expectations to be completed by the middle of 2015, the company said. Once completed, the two processing trains will produce around 1.4 billion standard cubic feet a day (bcfd) of sales gas. Combined with RasGas’ other facilities production of LNG and sales gas, the BGP is set to make RasGas one of the largest single gas processors in the world with a production capacity of 11 bcfd (the equivalent of almost two million barrels of oil). In addition to sales gas, Barzan will produce about 22,000 barrels per day (bpd) of field condensate, 6,000 bpd of plant condensate, 34,000 bpd of ethane, 10,500 bpd of propane and 7,500 bpd of butane.
“The Barzan Gas Project is strategically important for Qatar’s sustainable economic development, and is a powerful step forward in the country’s overall industrial and human development, in line with Qatar National Vision 2030, under the wise leadership of HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, carrying on the vision of HH the Father Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani,” HE Minister of Energy and Industry Dr. Mohammed bin Saleh Al-Sada said, adding: “I would like to commend RasGas, its shareholders, Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil Corporation, its contractors and all involved in this massive project for their commitment, outstanding management and world-class safety achievements.” The construction of this mega-project, which includes both offshore and onshore facilities, started in 2011. The offshore facilities include three offshore wellhead platforms, subsea pipelines and cables. The onshore facilities are comprised of a gas processing unit, a sulphur recovery unit to remove impurities from the natural gas, and a natural gas liquids (NGL) recovery unit, which will produce methane, ethane, propane, butane and condensate. Ethane produced from the plant will be used as a feedstock for the growing Qatari petrochemical industry. RasGas was appointed by its shareholders – Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil – to design, construct and operate the BGP, which is one of the largest and most technologically advanced gas projects in the region.
The project has maintained world-class safety performance and industry-leading results for the last three years through a disciplined approach to process safety and relentless focus on accident prevention and continually improving project execution practices.
Emphasizing the need for continued vigilance, RasGas Chief Executive Officer Hamad Rashid Al Mohannadi said “The Barzan Gas Project is a prime example of RasGas’ commitment to safety and excellence in project management and execution. I am proud to note that we have already achieved an unprecedented world-class safety record of 130 million man-hours without a lost time incident (LTI). I would like to thank our shareholders, contractors, employees and workers for this outstanding achievement given the complexity of managing a multi-national workforce of more than 30,000 people at peak construction in very challenging conditions.” Al Mohannadi also cited the company’s commitment to the environment as a high priority area where RasGas has taken significant strides in ensuring that the BGP facilities are built utilizing the right technology and sound engineering design to operate safely and reliably.
Various innovative technologies and controls are being implemented to minimize adverse environmental impacts. These include using the best available technology (BAT) for combustion sources, utilizing innovative start-up flare minimization strategies, and undertaking environmental projects to protect coral and marine life. The facility will also utilize ExxonMobil’s Flexsorb SE Plus for tail gas treatment of the sulfur recovery plant which will allow the facility to achieve 99.4 percent recovery efficiency, which will be the highest recovery efficiency of any gas treatment project in Ras Laffan Industrial City. Specialized burner technology has also been installed on fired equipment and gas turbines to help minimize nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions.
As part of RasGas’ efforts to preserve marine life and protect biodiversity in its project waters, the company relocated around 1,600 corals living along the Barzan Gas’ pipeline route prior to construction. This was done in consultation with Qatar’s Ministry of Environment.
RasGas is a Qatari joint stock company established in 2001 by Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil RasGas Inc. RasGas acts as the operating company for and on behalf of the owners of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects RL, RL (II) and RL3 (project owners). With operations facilities based in Ras Laffan Industrial City, Qatar, RasGas’ principal activities are to extract, process, liquefy, store and export LNG and its derivatives from Qatar’s North Field. RasGas, on behalf of the project owners, exports to countries across Asia, Europe and the Americas with a total LNG production capacity of approximately 37 million tons per annum.
Source : Qatar News Agency
