DOHA: The Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Co-II (RasGas-II) on Thursday awarded the onshore Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract for Train-5 to the Chiyoda, Snamprogretti and Co consortium.
The contract is worth $1.5m and provides for the construction of a world-class, 4.7million tonne per annum (mtpa) LNG liquefaction train and the extraction of natural gas liquids from the inlet gas stream.
Jerry Wolahan, managing director, RasGas, signed the agreement on behalf of his company while officials from Chiyoda and Snamprogetti, including Alfredo Feliciani, Giovanni Taranto, Hiroshi Kobayashi and Osamu Imahara, signed on behalf of their respective firms.
Speaking to the media, Wolahan said Train-5 will be built at the RasGas site adjacent to the Train-4 at the Ras Laffan Industrial City and start-up is scheduled for mid 2007. Feed gas for the Train-5 will be sourced from Qatar's North Field, which has proven natural gas reserves of more than 900 trillion cubic feet. Train-5 will take RasGas' production to 20.7mtpa, he added. Train-4, which will be completed in mid 2005, will increase RasGas production to 16mtpa.
Snamprogetti officials disclosed that Train-5 will be completed at least six months before the industry standards for such a project, and three months faster than the completion time taken for Train-4. The unit cost of the Train-5 is also very low compared to industry standards, elsewhere, they said.
"The award of the Train-5 EPC onshore contract is a major milestone in Qatar's long-term plan to increase LNG exports to over 60mtpa by the end of the decade. The new train will employ the latest technologies resulting in lower expansion costs," RasGas officials, said.
Earlier this year, RasGas (II) also awarded an offshore EPC contract to J Ray McDermott Middle East.
This offshore facilities contract provides for the construction and installation of a wellhead platform and pipeline capable of producing and transporting about 800 million standard cubic feet of gas per day.
Qatar Petroleum has a 70 per cent equity interest in the project while ExxonMobil RasGas Inc has 30 per cent.
This expansion of the RasGas(II) project will take advantage from the synergies with its existing trains and Sale and Purchase Agreements are under negotiations with European customers, a RasGas press release said.
According to details released by RasGas, Train-5 will produce 4.7mtpa of LNG, 34,000 barrels per day (bpd) of condensate, 15,000bpd of Liquefied Petroleum Gas, offers a potential for ethane recovery and will give a 857million cubic feet per day inlet gas volume.
Train-5 has the same basic LNG design as Trains-3 and 4 and all are capable of recovering 4.7mtpa of LNG and share the distinction of being the largest size train in the world.
Train-5 is a replica of Train-4, allowing significant reduction in EPC schedule and cost savings while achieving synergy benefits both, for itself and other projects on the RasGas site through sharing in use of common facilities.
Some of the special features of Train-5 are that it will offer the lowest unit cost LNG train, will have the fastest EPC schedule for an LNG train of 30 months as compared to 33 months for Trains-3 and 4 and an industry norm of 36 months.
It will be the first utilisation in Qatar of dry low Nitrogen Oxide technology to reduce by about 80 per cent, gas emissions from the turbines. Train-5 is also said to be commercially the first Qatar LNG EPC contract to utilise multi-currency payments, resulting in savings of more than $20m.
It is the first LNG train that requires expansion of site facilities beyond the current RasGas fence and the first that will bring the company's LNG production to the 20mtpa production level.
© The Peninsula 2004
