The Emir of Qatar officially inaugurated Laffan Refinery, one of the world’s largest condensate refineries, at a magnificent ceremony held at Qatargas headquarters in Ras Laffan today.
Operated by Qatargas, Laffan Refinery, which started production in September 2009, is one of the largest condensate refineries, with a processing capacity of 146,000 barrels per stream day (bpsd). HH the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani officially inaugurated the project in front of the assembled audience at Ras Laffan City.
His Excellency Abdulla Bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Energy & Industry said: “Qatar is blessed with huge gas and condensate reserves in the North Field, so it was natural for Qatar to develop a project that maximises the utilisation of these resources as Laffan Refinery does, in order to meet increasing world demands as well as local demand for these energy products.”
“The Laffan Refinery is in line with the State’s long term strategy of diversifying the country’s portfolio of hydrocarbon products and adds to Qatar’s expanding energy portfolio,” added HE Abdulla Al-Attiyah.
Faisal Al-Suwaidi, Chief Executive Officer, Qatargas said: “Qatargas is proud to have delivered this world-class facility to the State of Qatar and we value greatly the confidence placed in us by the State to lead this project. Qatargas had the infrastructure, leadership and expertise in safety and operations to lead a project of this kind. Our commitment to our people, development of young Nationals, safety, and the environment meant that the State was confident to have Qatargas lead the establishment of this ambitious condensate refinery. This project has been executed with an outstanding safety performance and environmental compliance.”
A number of high-level officials from Qatar were present including Qatar Petroleum board directors as well as senior management of Qatar Petroleum subsidiaries. The Ambassadors from key customer countries, shareholder representatives and customers also attended the ceremony.
During the inauguration, guests were presented with a virtual tour of the facility that took the audience through the entire production process, beginning with the tank farm that stores the feedstock condensate, through the various steps, all the way to the distillation column, where it is separated into different products according to their boiling points. The 146,000 barrels of condensate currently processed by the facility each day is equivalent to the fuel that can continuously fly 14 Super Jumbo Jets and run 6,000 trucks and 43,000 cars every day. Guests also learnt more about the markets for the Refinery’s products.
The Laffan Refinery helps to capture synergies and opportunities from the development of the North Field by Qatargas, RasGas and other Ras Laffan City ventures.
Laffan Refinery consists of process units including utility systems, distillation units, naphtha and kerosene hydrotreaters, a hydrogen unit and a saturated gas plant producing naphtha, kerojet, gasoil and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).
The refinery’s production capacity will be 63,000 bpsd of naphtha, 52,000 bpsd of kerojet, 24,000 bpsd of gasoil, and 8,000 bpsd of LPG.
Shareholders in the initiative include Qatar Petroleum (51%), ExxonMobil, Total, Idemitsu, Cosmo, Mitsui, and Marubeni.
