RLIC investment reaches $70bn

The RLIC , in which over 22 international and local companies operate, is the centre for refining and most other energy production activities in Qatar.

The city provides a variety of support services for the gas industry and also boosts a port that is used for shipping hydrocarbon products overseas.

The latest addition to the port facilities is a large ship repair and dry dock facility which is expected to be operational by mid-2010.

The RLIC is exerting great efforts in developing its services to meet the requirements of current and future establishments in which currently some 100,000 people are employed.

A major component of RLIC is the ultra modern port which is also making great strides with new berths under construction expected to be operational by 2011.

As Qatar plans to more than double LNG production to 77 million tonnes a year by the end of 2010, Nakilat by then will wholly or partly own some 54 tankers capable of carrying the fuel, thus the need for the port's continuous expansion.

Since operations began back in 1996, both the Ras Laffan Port and its berth facilities at RLIC have been developed extensively to cater for exports from new and expanding industries.

With six operational liquefied natural gas (LNG) berths, the port built on 8.5sq km area is already the world's premier LNG exporting facility.

It has a number of other berths for export of liquids such as condensate, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and gas to liquids (GTL) products. Clean gas and clean fuels mean RLIC is becoming the world's leading green industrial city.

The Ras Laffan Port consists of six berths that can cater to LNG carriers with 135,000 cubic metres capacity with two more LNG berths currently under construction, eight berths for liquids with four more under construction and nine berths for a variety of products.

There are also other berths that have been made for specific functions such as unloading heavy loads and mooring tug boats.

Meanwhile, the RLIC as well as its port are attaching great importance to the protection of the marine environment with a number of measures been taken to ensure that the regulations for the protection of the environment set by the Ministry of Environment are strictly implemented.

It is for instance prohibited to dispose of drainage and water into the sea and cannot be used in agriculture for example before it has been treated according to specific quality specifications.