Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Co. last week disclosed the award of a $1 billion contract for engineering, procurement, and construction of a gas liquefaction plant in Qatar's Ras Laffan industrial area on the Persian Gulf coast.
The contract went to a joint venture of JGC Corp. of Japan and M.W. Kellogg of the U.S. for a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plant with a capacity of about 5 million metric tons/year. Work is to get under way this month, with first LNG shipments to Korea Gas Corp. of South Korea scheduled in August 1999.
Ras Laffan LNG is a venture of state owned Qatar General Petroleum Corp. (QGPC) 70% and Mobil QM Inc., a unit of Mobil Corp., 30%. It is one of two giant LNG projects in Qatar. The other, a project by Qatar Liquefied Gas Co., is to be commissioned this year and produce 10 million metric tons/year of LNG (OGJ, Apr. 24, 1995, p. 38).
Korea Gas Corp. also holds an option to buy an additional 2.4 million metric tons/year of LNG starting in 2000.
In addition, QGPC plans to deliver 2.1 million metric tons/year of LNG to Taiwan's Chinese Petroleum Corp., 2.5 million metric tons/year to China, 2.5 million metric tons/year to Essar Group of India, and 2 million metric tons/year to Botas of Turkey.
QGPC said the Ras Laffan LNG plant design will allow easy expansion.
Other contracts
Ras Laffan LNG during fourth quarter 1995 let contracts for four long lead time items:
- LNG storage tanks to a combine of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan and Campenon Bernard SGE of France.
- The main cryogenic exchanger to Air Products & Chemicals of the U.S.
- Refrigeration compressors to Elliott Co. of the U.S.
- Site preparation to Atlas of Qatar.
Ras Laffan LNG also signed commitment letters with several international banks to partly fund the plant with support of export credit agencies. The banks will finance as much as 75% of the project, whose gas supply will come from giant North field in the Persian Gulf.
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