Qatargas Launches $1 Bln Eco Project at Ras Laffan

His Excellency Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani, Prime Minister and Minister of Interior of the State of Qatar, officially inaugurated the Jetty Boil-Off Gas Recovery (JBOG) Project in Ras Laffan Industrial City (RLIC) today.
 
The biggest project of its kind and one of the largest environmental investments in the world, the JBOG Project represents a significant milestone in the State of Qatar’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions from its LNG industry.
 
The JBOG Project is part of the Common Facilities Projects at RLIC and it is led and operated by Qatargas on behalf of Qatar Petroleum and RasGas Company Limited (RasGas).  It is an environmental project to recover the gas flared during Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) loading at the six LNG berths in Ras Laffan Port.
 
The inauguration ceremony was attended by His Excellency Dr. Mohammed bin Saleh Al-Sada, Minister of Energy and Industry, senior government officials, and senior executives from Qatar Petroleum, Qatargas, RasGas and project shareholders.
 
Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, President and CEO of Qatar Petroleum and Chairman of Qatargas, said the JBOG Project is not only the biggest environmental project in the world, but also one of the largest investments of its kind, at nearly one billion dollars.
 
Speaking at the inauguration event, Mr. Al-Kaabi hailed the sound vision and wise leadership of His Highness Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani, the Emir of Qatar which has guided us in this effort; pointing out to the environment as one of the pillars of the Qatar National Vision, which was launched and patronized by His Highness.
 
He said “protecting the environment has always been a holistic commitment in everything Qatar Petroleum and its joint ventures do. This commitment is embodied in a number of initiatives, amongst which this project is the largest and most comprehensive with regards to protecting the environment and exploiting the natural resources of the state. The JBOG Project demonstrates the commitment of the State of Qatar to balance industrial development with care for the environment and reinforces our pioneering and leadership role in the energy industry.”
 
Mr. Al-Kaabi concluded by commending Qatargas for leading the safe and reliable execution and operation of this project on behalf of Qatar Petroleum and the LNG producers in Ras Laffan. He also acknowledged Qatargas and RasGas for their continued commitment towards protecting the environment and reducing carbon emissions from our LNG industry.
 
The JBOG Project will result in a 90% reduction in flaring at the six LNG loading berths at Ras Laffan, equivalent to annual Green House Gas (GHG) savings of 1.6 million tonnes of CO2. The project will help recover 29 billion standard cubic feet (bscf) of gas per year which is enough gas to produce 750 MW of power or to power 300,000 homes.
 
“The JBOG Project is considered a landmark project for the State of Qatar. Qatargas is proud to have been entrusted by Qatar Petroleum with the responsibility of leading the project on behalf of the LNG producers at Ras Laffan Industrial City. Qatargas is committed to being a key contributor in the realization of Qatar’s National Vision 2030 to have a proactive and significant international role in assessing the impact of climate change through the responsible production of LNG while protecting the environment for our future generations to come”; said Khalid Bin Khalifa Al Thani, CEO of Qatargas.
 
The safe, reliable and efficient execution of the project was made possible through bringing together industry-leading partners, technological expertise and innovation.
With approximately 3500 people working on site at the peak of construction activities, the project has an outstanding safety record with 22.6 million man-hours worked from 2010 until 2015 without a Lost Time Incident. This remarkable safety milestone is testament to Qatargas’ commitment to creating and maintaining an incident and injury free work environment.
 
“JBOG is another milestone in a long history of our commitment to various green-house gas reduction projects, which includes carbon capture initiatives and other flare minimization programmes. The synergy and cooperation demonstrated by both RasGas and Qatargas on this project further strengthen Qatar’s global LNG leadership position” said Hamad Rashid Al Mohannadi, Chief Executive Officer of RasGas.
 
Ras Laffan is the world’s largest LNG export terminal and the only facility where multiple LNG ships can be loaded simultaneously. JBOG posed a great challenge and it is very unique because it had to be designed to recover the boil off gas from multiple ships loading simultaneously.
 
Qatargas partnered with General Electric (GE) to build the first model (001) of the largest Low Pressure (LP) Compressors in the world for the JBOG Project. The design is the first of its kind in this size range. In fact, to date there had never been a low pressure boil off gas compressor built requiring such large volumes at such a low suction pressure – These were very unique specifications. 
 
Qatargas is proud to promote state of the art solutions and technologies to further improve the environmental performance of its facilities.
 
Since the start of the first recovery of jetty boil-off gas in October 2014, jetty boil-off gas has been recovered from over 500 ships. The start-up of the JBOG Project has demonstrated that Qatar is not only the largest producer of cleaner energy for the world, in the form of LNG, but has also invested heavily to ensure the reduction of the carbon emission in its LNG production facilities.