File photo.
Qatar’s ambitious Barzan gas project will begin operations before the end of this year, H E Saad bin Sherida Al Kaabi, Minister of State for Energy Affairs, and President & CEO of Qatar Petroleum (QP), told reports at a press conference held to announce the signing for a yet another big ticket project for the development of a petrochemicals complex.
The $10bn (about QR36.41bn) gas project is a joint venture between QP and ExxonMobil. In January 2011, these two-energy giants signed agreements confirming the development of the project, which will play a significant role in meeting Qatar’s rising domestic gas demand. The project is a powerful step forward in Qatar’s overall industrial and human development, in line with the Qatar National Vision 2030.
Once fully operational, the project will boost Qatari gas production by up to 2 billion cubic feet per day, and much of this production will be directed to the power and water sector.
The Barzan project includes both offshore and onshore facilities. Offshore facilities include three offshore wellhead platforms, subsea pipelines and cables. The onshore facilities comprise a gas processing unit, a sulphur recovery unit to remove impurities from the natural gas, and a natural gas liquids (NGL) recovery unit, which will produce methane, ethane, propane, butane and condensate.
Ethane produced from the plant will be used as a feedstock for the growing Qatari petrochemical industry.
The two processing trains will produce around 1.4 billion cubic feet /day of sales gas, which, when combined with RasGas’ (now merged to Qatargas) other facilities production will make the company one of the largest single gas processors in the world, with a production capacity of 11 f3/d.
In addition to sales gas, Barzan will produce about 22,000 b/d of field condensate, 6,000 b/d of plant condensate, 34,000 b/d of ethane, 10,500 b/d of propane and 7,500 b/d of butane.
