Early start due for Train 5

Qatar’s position as the world’s largest LNG producer has been reinforced with the announcement that RasGas has started to commission its fifth liquefaction train.

Originally scheduled for start-up on March 20 2007, Train 5 will now begin production in January, just over two months ahead of schedule, according to Mohammed al-Sada, the company’s new managing director.

RasGas detailed the announcement at December’s GASTECH exhibition, held in Abu Dhabi.

Output from the new facility will take Qatar’s total LNG production to 30 million tonnes per annum, placing the country well ahead of Indonesia in terms of LNG output.

With four trains already in operation, RasGas currently produces around 16 million tonnes of LNG per annum, and, with a production capacity of 4.7 million tonnes per annum, Train 5 will supply LNG to Europe as soon as it becomes operational.

In his first address to the company after taking over as managing director of RasGas, al-Sada said, “for almost a decade now, construction has been going on at a relentless pace at Ras Laffan. The starting up of Train 5 remains on schedule for early 2007 and by the decade-end, the skyline at Ras Laffan will get altered once more as Trains 6 and 7 rise from the ground.”

Al-Sada stressed the need for major financial investment with a project of this scale, and said that a patented technology called Fast Drill Process (FDP), of ExxonMobil, had so far saved the company nearly US $40 million during the drilling. He also claimed that this technology had accelerated the overall RasGas and Qatargas drilling development programmes by as much as 253 days.

“[FDP’s] successful implementation within RasGas is a credit to the dedication and innovation of those involved in drilling, integrated technology and petroleum engineering,” said a RasGas official. “Results have been above expectations and offer even more significant opportunities for the future.”

RasGas, a joint venture between state-owned Qatar Petroleum (QP) and ExxonMobil, has a 25-year, three million tonne per annum LNG supply deal with Taiwan’s Chinese Petroleum Corporation, which will come into effect in 2008. LNG supplies for the deal are expected to come from Train five.

Fluxys LNG will provide storage capacity at Belgium’s Zeebrugge terminal for QP and ExxonMobil, which have recently made a deal with the company.

RasGas intends to secure further sales deals in the near future with Train 6 and 7 and hopes to hit an annual capacity of 7.8 million tonnes each when they open in 2008 and 2009 respectively. This means that by the end of 2010, combined production from all seven trains will exceed 36 million tonnes.

Al-Sada also commented on talks, which are nearing completion with Korea’s Kogas over a sales and purchase agreement to sell 2.1 million tonnes of LNG per annum to the company. The deal will push Qatar’s LNG sales to South Korea to seven million tonnes per annum.

Qatar has suspended the signing of further LNG projects while it completes its study of its giant North Field, which has estimated gas reserves of at least 900 tcf. The moratorium is intended to last until 2010, but foreign oil companies are already keen to learn of Qatar’s intensions for future projects.

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