Smarter Ways To Bring Energy To The World

His Excellency spoke about some of the technology innovations that Qatargas employs to ensure reliable energy for its customers around the world.

Qatargas has been a reliable global supplier of LNG for more than 20 years. As it embarks on expansion projects to add 40% production capacity for a total of 110 million tons of LNG, the company continues to leverage technology in the same strategic way that enabled it to bring forth the full LNG supply chain model from exploration to distribution.

Adopting key technologies has helped Qatargas achieve larger LNG ships, larger LNG trains, and multi-train facilities that combined to optimize capital and operating costs. Its mature technologies include feed-gas treatment, refrigeration, NGL recovery, and sulphur recovery. Today, the company continues partnering with contractors, suppliers, and shareholders to utilize technological advancement to improve the way it does business.

On the shipping front, the design and construction of its Q-Max and Q-FLex vessels were a technological landmark for the LNG shipping industry. LNG ship size traditionally grew in small steps. But ground-breaking studies on in-tank sloshing load enabled capacity to increase by up to 50%—from the typical vessel size of 145,000 m3 to 266,000 m3 on the Q-Max. These ships include slow-speed diesel engines that are more thermal the efficient than steam turbines, burn less fuel, and have 30% lower emissions than the prevailing traditional designs. The company is now investigating LNG as a bunker fuel while considering upcoming low-sulphur regulations.

Qatargas has set up a 1 billion jetty boil-off gas (JBOG) recovery facility that helps minimize flaring at the loading dock in Ras Laffan Industrial City. The JBOG commenced operation in October 2014, and has recovered 90% of the boil-off gas that was previously flared. It collects the boil-off gas, and sends it to a central compressor, after which it is sent to fuel LNG plants.

Qatargas also maintains a robust flare-management program that, along with other initiatives successfully reduced overall flare intensity by 70% between 2011 and 2018. There is already a plan in place to further reduce flaring in the next five years.

Waste water is another key area of interest at Qatargas. The Zero Liquid Discharge Project was successfully completed in its refineries, and a new waste water recycling plant leveraging the latest technologies is well underway.

As digitization is more and more prevalent, cyber security is a growing concern. In response, Qatargas decided to build a state-of-the-art security operation centre to defend its system 24/7.