DOHA - Qatar Fuel Company's (Woqod) state-of-the-art LPG plant at the Salwa New Industrial Area is now expected to be commissioned in early 2009 after a slight delay.
Woqod Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Mohamed Turki Al Sobai said here recently 70 percent of the work on the approximately QR 175m plant has now been completed. The project was scheduled to be ready this year.
The LPG bottling plant will have a capacity of 36,000 cylinders per day, while the market requirement is currently around 15,000 but this could be lower or higher depending on the demand, Al Sobai said.
He said a pipeline to supply liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) from Mesaieed refinery to the bottling plant is currently under construction and is expected to be commissioned by the first quarter of next year.
This will help do away with tanker trucks and would also allow for gas distribution to be made directly to consumers from the new depot.
In addition, Woqod is currently setting up a multi-products pipeline which will increase the supply of petroleum products by an additional 100,000 barrels per day (b/d) to the 50,000 b/d being supplied by the current pipeline from Mesaieed refinery to Doha depot. The project is slated for completion by the end of this year.
Al Sobai said this would help supply petroleum products directly from Mesaieed to the depot thus doing away with tanker trucks.
The third pipeline under construction and to be completed by the end of 2009 will be supplying jet fuel directly from the refinery to New Doha International Airport.
Al Sobai said work on phase II of Doha Depot is already under way as part of a project to double the loading capacity. The project is expected to be completed by the end of next year.
"We have already completed the earlier two phases that comprise storage tanks. Four additional storage tanks for petroleum products like diesel and gasoline have already been commissioned," Al Sobai said.
The second phase of Doha depot expansion would see additional facilities to boost delivery capability as part of its expansion to meet the growing demand for petroleum products, he said.
Woqod is to build a second depot the location of which is yet to be specified to meet the anticipated growing demand for fuels as part of the company's medium-term plan extending to 2015.
"By 2015 the current depot would not have sufficient capacity. We need to set up another depot for petroleum products to meet the anticipated massive demands as a result of urban development and population increase especially in Doha City and its vicinity which consumes some 80 percent of all the supplies of petroleum products, he added.
© The Peninsula 2008
