Qatar Petroleum, the world's top supplier of liquefied natural gas (LNG), said on Wednesday it was adding a fourth liquefaction train to raise capacity from the North Field to 110 million tons per annum (MTPA). The output from the field will rise from 77 million tons a year now.
With the addition of the fourth train, the new project will produce about 32 MTPA of LNG, 4,000 tons/day of ethane, 260,000 barrels/day of condensate, and 11,000 tons/day of LPG, in addition to approximately 20 tons per day of pure helium.
When the project is completed, Qatar’s LNG production capacity will reach 110 MTPA, representing an increase of around 43% from its current production capacity of 77 MTPA.
The announcement was made by Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, the President & CEO of Qatar Petroleum, who said: "As we have announced last year, Qatar Petroleum has embarked on a project to develop additional gas from the North Field and build three new LNG mega trains. Based on the good results obtained through recent additional appraisal and testing, we have decided to add a fourth LNG mega train and include it in the ongoing Front-end engineering of the project. When the project is completed and all four new trains are online, Qatar’s LNG production capacity will reach 110 MTPA. This will increase Qatar’s total production capacity from 4.8 to 6.2 million barrels of oil equivalent per day."
Al Kaabi added, "This new capacity increase will further strengthen our leading position as the world's largest LNG producer and exporter, and will further boost Qatar Petroleum's strategic growth plan. This production addition will have a great impact on Qatar’s economic growth and will help stimulate our local economy."
Al-Kaabi concluded his comments by saying “We believe that LNG has bright prospects and that the new expansion project reflects Qatar Petroleum’s commitment to meeting its worldwide customers’ growing needs for this reliable and environmentally friendly fuel.”
The North Field Expansion Project is well underway with various activities currently ongoing, including the Front End Engineering and Design (FEED) of the onshore facilities, which is being executed by Chiyoda Corporation of Japan. The engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) contract for the offshore wellhead jackets is expected to be awarded before the end of the year, and development drilling activities are expected to commence imminently.
