Oil and Energy

The offshore contract was awarded to J. Ray McDermott Middle East while the onshore contract was awarded to the Chiyoda Corporation and Technip France Joint Venture (CTJV). Qatar Petroleum has a 70 percent equity interest in this project and ExxonMobil Ras Laffan (III) Limited. an Exxon Mobil Corporation subsidiary, 30 percent.

Trains 6 and 7 will be built at the RasGas site adjacent to RasGas’ existing facilities at Ras Laffan Industrial City. Feed gas for Trains 6 and 7 will be sourced from Qatar's North Field, which has natural gas reserves in excess of 900 trillion cubic feet.

The onshore EPC contract provides for the construction of two world-scale, 7.8 million tonne per annum (MTA) LNG liquefaction trains. The offshore facilities contract involves the construction and installation of two wellhead platforms and two offshore pipelines capable of producing and transporting the required gas feed stock. The Ras Laffan 3 project will take advantage of synergies with existing trains. The overall project (including LNG transport vessels and other investments) is the largest LNG project that has been announced and is expected to supply gas principally to the U.S., making Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil leaders in supplying the important U.S. natural gas market. Delivery of LNG to the U.S. is targeted to begin in 2008/2009 and will extend for over 25 years.

The award of the Train 6 and 7 EPC onshore and offshore contracts is another major milestone in Qatar's long-term plan to increase LNG exports from Qatar to over 77 MTA by end of the decade. The new trains will employ the latest technologies resulting in lower unit costs.