DOHA: Some 14 contractors have shown interest in submitting bids for the Barzan gas field project, Deputy Premier and Minister of Energy and Industry, HE Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah said yesterday.
Contracts are expected to be awarded to develop the Barzan field which had been delayed for the last two years, Al Attiyah told reporters on the sidelines of the MEED Qatar Projects 2010 conference which opened here yesterday.
"We held back some projects in 2008 because the costs were high. Now we are seeing these costs going down," he said. He added that the delay of the project was a right assessment as it was intended to take advantage of a slump in the costs before starting construction.
Gas from the Barzan field would supply the rapidly growing demand in Qatar's domestic market, he said.
He also said that several other new projects were coming up this year, calling on contractors to be prepared.
Earlier addressing the MEED conference, Al Attiyah said that 2010 will be a milestone for Qatar's energy industry when a number of major projects will reach completion.
"The most significant achievement however will be reaching our planned LNG production capacity of 77 million tones per year when the remaining trains of Qatargas and Rasgas commence production. Today, our LNG production capacity stands at 54 million tones per year, and the remaining three trains will commence later this year," he said.
The progress in LNG business has coincided with another equally important development in the diversified gas industry strategy. The construction of phase one of Pearl GTL is due for completion by the end of this year. This will be the world's largest Gas-to-Liquid plant, which will produce 140 thousand barrels a day of petroleum products. "The Shell GTL project, and its predecessor Oryx, are major steps towards meeting the world's growing demand for cleaner energy, as well as making Qatar the GTL capital of the world," said Al Attiyah.
He noted that to ensure availability of natural gas to meet the increasing demand of local industries, including electricity generation and downstream projects, local gas projects have witnessed rapid expansions, these projects include AKG-1, AKG-2, and Barzan.
"While Qatar has put great efforts into building its gas exporting capacity, we are also developing world-class downstream projects. Our strategy is driven by opportunities to add value to existing oil and gas production and to meet the requirements of the local industries," he said.
"At the same time, our downstream activities offer us a chance to diversify national income and increase our economic base."
By Nasser Al Harthy
© The Peninsula 2010
