The Qatari RAS Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Company Limited (II) Sunday signed two engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts for building a new LNG train and related onshore facilities at the RasGas plant site and to set up offshore facilities and a pipeline to the shore, the Gulf Times News reported Monday.
The new LNG train (train-III) will be built by a joint venture comprising Chiyoda Corporation and Mitsui Company of Japan and Snamprogetti SpA, an Italian company
The EPC contract for building the offshore facilities and a 90-km offshore to onshore pipeline was awarded to J Ray McDermott Middle East (Indian Ocean), the paper said.
RasGas (II) is a Qatari joint venture formed by Qatar Petroleum and Mobil QM Gas Inc, an affiliate of Exxon Mobil Corporation.
Speaking to reporters after awarding the EPC contracts, Yousef Hussein Kamal, Minister of Finance, Economy and Trade, and RasGas chairman, was quoted by the daily as saying that the capacity expansion project consists of offshore production, transportation and liquefaction facilities to produce approximately 4.7mn tons of LNG annually from the North Field.
The facilities incorporate state-of-the-art technology available in offshore and the LNG industry.
The SPA covers deliveries of 5mmta to a planned import terminal at Dahej in the central Indian state of Gujarat and another 2.5mmta to a terminal at Kochi in India. Deliveries to Dahej are slated to begin in late 2003, initially supplied by the existing LNG trains at the RasGas plant site, it added.
Currently, the two operational RasGas trains have a capacity of 3mn tons of LNG a year. Production from the project was launched in 2000 to supply Kogas at an annual rate of 4.9mn tons a year over a 25-year period – Albawaba.com
