Qatar on 27 October inaugurated its 7.8mn tons/year RasGas 3 train 6, which when fully on stream will boost the emirate’s LNG capacity to 46.2mn t/y, transforming it into the global LNG powerhouse. With over 23mn t/y of capacity scheduled to be brought on in 2009 alone – roughly equivalent to the capacity of Malaysia, the world’s number 2 producer - this year marks the largest expansion in LNG history.

RasGas 3 train 7 could push this figure even higher if it comes on stream by its year end target. Qatar is planning to reach 77m t/y of LNG production by the end of the decade. If its first 7.8mn t/y project, Qatargas 2 train 4, was badly delayed, Qatar’s mega-train schedule is now well and truly back on track. RasGas train 6 started up in August, while Qatargas train 5 began production in September. Train 4, while inaugurated in April, did not start producing properly until early summer, around a year and a half behind its intial November 2007 start-up target (MEES, 13 April). All the mega-trains, which mark a step change in scale and complexity for the global LNG industry, require several months before they hit their full 7.8mn t/y capacity. “Everyone learnt the lessons from train 4. They are applying them to the subsequent trains, and they are picking up the pace,” a source at state-owned Qatar Petroleum (QP) tells MEES.  All the trains have been modeled on ExxonMobil’s pioneering design for Qatargas train 4 which has been used as the blueprint for the other mega-trains. As well as the sheer scale of the project, problems on the gas flaring system, which led to cracking, was a principal cause of delay for train 4.

Qatar’s ascent to the top of the LNG production table has had the added, and often overlooked, benefit of also establishing itself as a major LPG and condensate producer. Qatargas 1 (three 3.3mn t/y trains) produces around 50,000 b/d of condensate.  Qatargas 2 (two 7.8mn t/y trains) should produce around 100,000 b/d, with a combined 45,000 b/d expected from Qatargas 3 and 4. RasGas 1 (two 3.3mn t/y trains) produces around 37,000 b/d of condensate, while the Khaleej wet gas projects and RasGas 2, 3 and four will produce a total of 246,000 b/d of condensate. Khaleej phase 1 produces 750mn cfd, while ExxonMobil is building the 1.25bn cfd phase 2, which should be ready by year end. Qatar’s recently commissioned 146,000 b/d condensate refinery means not all of this will be available for export. The 2bn cfd Dolphin export project to the UAE also produces around 90,000 b/d of condensate.  Sizeable volumes, much of it spiked into crude streams, are also produced with oil production.

Qatari LNG Projects For Post-2008 Start-up

* Marubeni has option to buy stake.

The Pearly Wait

Qatar’s biggest single project is the 140,000 b/d Pearl Gas-To-Liquids facility, being built by Shell. Touted as the single largest energy project in the world, Pearl will need 1.6bn cfd of feed stock. Costs are believed to be at the top end of the $12-18bn range given when the project was launched in 2006. Construction is 70% complete, says the QP source. “But it is not linear, the last 30% is going to be the hardest,” he says. Shell had hoped for start-up by late 2010, but this is believed to have slipped into early 2011, says the source.

In addition to two 70,000 b/d trains to produce clean products, Pearl will produce 120,000 b/d of NGLs and ethane. Shell will market the products, which will break down into around 1mn t/y of high quality base oil, 2mn t/y of gas oil, 0.5mn t/y of kerosene, 1mn t/y of naphtha and 0.2mn t/y of paraffin. The workforce – Pearl’s work camp even has a mayor – has swelled to 48,000. Last month construction finished on thirty-eight giant tanks, which will store liquid fuels, lubricants and chemical feed stock. “The volume of the Pearl GTL tanks is together equal to that of 440 Olympic-sized swimming pools,” read a Shell press release. “The largest tank has a diameter of 78 metres and is 22 metres high,” it continued.  Also last month, Qatar Airways made the first commercial flight using GTL jet fuel, produced by Shell’s Bintulu GTL facility in Malaysia. And on 12 October Qatari oil minister 'Abd Allah al-'Attiyah launched the testing phase for Pearl and inaugurated the plant’s control room. This comprises “almost 1,000 control cabinets hosting 179 servers which are programmed with 12 million lines of software code,” read another Shell release. “The system is linked to every part of the plant by about 5,850km of underground cables,” it continued.

Crude Output Dips In August

Qatar is also boosting crude production, with Denmark’s Maersk spearheading a drive to lift capacity over the 1mn b/d mark. Output in August at Qatar’s al-Shaheen field dropped to the lowest level since May 2007, according to figures obtained by MEES (see table). Average production at al-Shaheen, operated by Maersk, has fallen by around 30,000 b/d from last year’s levels. The reason is less to do with OPEC cuts than necessary tie-in work as part of Maersk’s capacity expansion from 240,000 b/d to 525,000 b/d, Qatar-based sources tell MEES.  The $6bn expansion project involves drilling some 160 new wells.

Qatari Crude Production (‘000 b/d)

© Copyright MEES 2009.