Doha - Qatar, 18 April 2011: A Qatargas team headed for London, UK to take the stage at an Ethical Corporation conference on Social & Environmental Risk Management.

The Qatargas team highlighted examples of how Qatargas uses a wide range of tools including corporate social responsibility and sustainability to manage and prepare for risks of an environmental and reputational nature.

The conference, entitled "Social & Environmental Risk Management and Implementation: Innovation and Inspiration for the Extractive Industry", was held in London from 5-6 April 2011.  

Representing Qatargas at the conference, James Baldwin, Environmental Manager, and Dana Haidan, Corporate Citizenship  Officer, jointly presented a paper on "Environmental Risks & Reputational Damage: How to identify and reduce the threats to our business."

Presenting the paper, they said, Qatargas has developed a Corporate Citizenship program aligned with the company's vision of becoming the world's premier LNG company by 2015 and in support of the Qatar National Vision 2030 and National Development.

They said: "As we have grown as a company so have our global customer base and the markets to whom we deliver LNG. In turn, the significance of our relationships and our environmental and social responsibilities have increased. This has brought far greater efficiency and effectiveness of operation, but also greater vulnerability. Due to our evolving size we recognise that we are now key players in a dynamic energy market system. This heightens a series of reputational risks and therefore expectations of risk management and enhanced transparency increase."

Further explaining, Dana Haidan noted: "Our reputational / social risk management strategy is challenging and must account for and balance numerous conditions, perspectives and variables across our diverse operational and business portfolio. For the challenging and evolving area of reputational risk and its strong links to environmental risk, our corporate social responsibility (CSR) program represents an excellent mechanism for addressing these challenges across the company and its operations."

James Baldwin concluded by saying: "Qatargas through its pioneering innovation has led the way in Qatar by demonstrating that ecological and engineering management can be worked in tandem to achieve both operational and environmental wins simultaneously and reduce costs at the same time. This has significantly enhanced our reputation in Qatar on such matters and we have been asked by the Ministry of the Environment to produce and publish a paper to highlight these successes for national publication."

-Ends-

About Qatargas:
Qatargas was established in 1984 and pioneered the liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry in Qatar.

Today, Qatargas, under the guidance of His Excellency Dr. Mohammed Saleh Al Sada, Minister of Energy & Industry of the State of Qatar and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Qatargas, is the largest LNG producer in the world, with an annual LNG production capacity of 42 million tonnes per annum (mta) realising its vision to deliver LNG to its customers around the globe, from its world-class facilities in Qatar.

Qatargas has seven LNG trains, of which four are the largest in the world - known as mega trains - each with a production capacity of 7.8 mta. 

The Qatargas vision is, by 2015 to be the world's premier LNG Company, known for its people, innovation, operating excellence, environmental responsibility and corporate citizenship.

Since the establishment of Qatargas 1, it has completed a successful expansion program that has included the development of Qatargas 2; Qatargas 3 and Qatargas 4 projects; Laffan Refinery, a dedicated fleet of ships, and an LNG receiving terminal. Qatargas operates these trains and the offshore as well as the Laffan Refinery, the Common Sulphur facilities on behalf of all users.

Qatargas is proud to be the major contributor to the realisation of the vision of His Highness the Emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, for the State of Qatar to be the largest LNG producer in the world, with a combined production capacity of 77 Million tonnes per annum by the end of 2010.  This achievement was celebrated in December 2010.

Today, Qatargas' customers are spread throughout the four corners of the world in Asian, European and North American markets including Japan, Spain, France, the United Kingdom, Canada, Mexico, the United States and China.

Discovered in 1971, the North Field - the world's largest natural gas field - contains more than 900 trillion cubic feet of gas. This huge field has enabled Qatar to become one of the world's major exporters of LNG.

The LNG industry helps meet world energy needs providing clean, safe and reliable source of fuel.  Qatar LNG will bring the benefits of energy diversity to our customers. LNG is a clean burning, reliable fuel that can be used efficiently in power generation and by industrial, commercial and domestic consumers. It may help countries reduce their carbon emissions.

Air emissions and greenhouse gases: Qatargas is focused on reducing our emissions footprint and energy use to the lowest practical levels and aims to be a strong pacesetter within the LNG industry in this regard.  This commitment is demonstrated through the reduction in emissions from Q-Max/Q-Flex fleet of vessels, where significant reductions in emissions are obtained for each molecule of LNG transported, when compared to conventional LNG vessels. These emission reductions are possible through the introduction of pioneering onboard jetty boil off recovery. Qatargas 1 operations has completed a suite of significant NOx reduction projects, with direct benefits to air quality in the region

Qatargas also has an established track record in dealing with mitigating and offsetting environmental effects of its projects, such as the QG2 and QG3&4 coral translocation

Contact details
Lynda James
Email: lyjames@qatargas.com.qa  
Ph +974 7799 66 35

Thajudeen Aliar
Email: taliar@qatargas.com.qa
Ph +974 3340 64 74

© Press Release 2011