(MENAFN- The Peninsula) The Train 1 of the ambitious multi-billion dollar Barzan Gas Project (BGP), a joint venture of Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil Corporation, which will play a significant role in meeting Qatar's rapidly growing domestic energy demand, will start operation from the first quarter of 2015.
RasGas (RasGas), the developer and operator of the project, in a press statement yesterday announced that the Train 1 of the historic BGP is more than 95 percent complete and is rapidly ramping up for first production of clean-burning natural gas by early next year.
Once fully completed, Trains 1 and 2 will produce around 1.4 billion cubic feet a day (bcfd) of clean-burning natural gas from the North Field. The $10.3bn project is fully integrated from reservoir to customers
Construction work on Train 2 is also progressing well with expectations to be completed by the middle of 2015. Combined with RasGas' other facilities production (LNG and sales gas), the BGP is set to make RasGas one of the largest single gas processors in the world with a production capacity of 11bcfd (the equivalent of almost two million barrels of oil). In addition to sales gas, Barzan will produce about 22,000 barrels per day (bpd) of field condensate, 6,000bpd of plant condensate, 34,000bpd of ethane, 10,500bpd of propane and 7,500bpd of butane.
The Minister of Energy and Industry, H E Dr Mohammed bin Saleh Al Sada, said: "The Barzan Gas Project is strategically important for Qatar's sustainable economic development, and is a powerful step forward in the country's overall industrial and human development, in line with Qatar National Vision 2030, under the wise leadership of the Emir, H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, carrying on the vision of the Father Emir, H H Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani. I would like to commend RasGas, its shareholders, QP and ExxonMobil, its contractors and all involved in this massive project for their commitment, outstanding management and world-class safety achievements."
The construction of this mega-project, which includes both offshore and onshore facilities, started in 2011. The offshore facilities include three offshore wellhead platforms, subsea pipelines and cables. The onshore facilities are comprised of a gas processing unit, a sulphur recovery unit to remove impurities from the natural gas, and a natural gas liquids (NGL) recovery unit, which will produce methane, ethane, propane, butane and condensate.
Ethane produced from the plant will be used as a feedstock for the growing Qatari petrochemical industry. RasGas was appointed by its shareholders, QP and ExxonMobil, to design, construct and operate the BGP, which is one of the largest and most technologically advanced gas projects in the region.
The project has maintained world-class safety performance and industry-leading results for the last three years through a disciplined approach to process safety and relentless focus on accident prevention and continually improving project execution practices.
Hamad Rashid Al Mohannadi, RasGas' CEO, said: "The Barzan Gas Project is a prime example of RasGas' commitment to safety and excellence in project management and execution. I am proud to note that we have already achieved an unprecedented world-class safety record of 130 million man-hours without a lost time incident (LTI). I would like to thank our shareholders, contractors, employees and workers for this outstanding achievement given the complexity of managing a multi-national workforce of more than 30,000 people at peak construction in very challenging conditions."
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