General Electric’s (GE) Oil and Gas business has been contracted to supply three Frame 6B gas turbines that will provide approximately 120 MW of power for an LNG production facility in Ras Laffan owned by Qatar Liquefied Gas Company Limited 2, 3 and 4.
The three Frame 6B machines will be manufactured at GE Energy’s plant in Belfort, France, and packaged at GE Oil and Gas facilities in Massa, Italy. The units will be shipped to Qatar during the first two quarters of 2007, with commercial operation scheduled for the third quarter of 2007. GE’s contract also includes electrical balance of plant equipment.
The gas turbines will be used for base load operations with a wide range of natural gas composition as the primary fuel. The units will be equipped with GE Dry Low NOx combustion systems that enable them to meet Qatar Liquefied Gas Company’s requirement for NOx emissions.
“According to World Energy Outlook, Qatar will have the fastest rate of energy-growth demand in the Middle East and North Africa region by 2030,” said Mohammad Ayoub, GE Oil and Gas general manager for the Middle East. “Qatar will also register the biggest volume increase in gas production and will account for almost one-quarter of the increase in gas inter-regional trade until 2030. This calls for efficient production technology, which GE has been supplying to Qatar’s natural gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) industries for more than 35 years. This contract builds further on GE’s already broad presence in the country.”
The new Frame 6B machines will further expand GE’s fleet of gas turbines in Qatar that includes Frame 5, 6 and 7 gas turbines as well as Frame 9 gas turbines being used for the LNG “super-trains” under construction for Qatargas 2, Qatargas 3 and Qatargas 4.
GE reiterated its commitment to Qatari customers by setting up the new GE Oil and Gas Service Centre in Ras Laffan. “The centre is designed to support the maintenance of GE gas turbines and compressors installed in Qatar, and acts as a ‘centre of excellence’ for GE service activities across the Middle East,” said Ayoub. “It also complements GE’s Qatar Localisation Programme, which was created to help develop local expertise and build local infrastructure.”
Qatar Petroleum, the state oil company, is the major shareholder in Qatar Liquefied Gas Company Limited 2,3 and 4 that includes joint venture participants ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips and Shell.
A joint venture between Chiyoda of Japan and Technip of France will be the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor for the new Qatar Liquefied Gas project.
