Qatargas Hails World’s Biggest Environmental Project at Ras Laffan

Ras Laffan Port, image courtesy Qatar Gas

Qatar, via its Ras Laffan Industrial Complex, is the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG) having delivered about 70 billion cubic meters of natural gas last year, or roughly 32 percent of the world’s supply. In the process of loading this super cooled product on to ships however, some of it is boiled off and subsequently flared into the atmosphere as there has never been a means to capture it.

In reflection of Qatar’s commitment to environmental sustainability, Qatargas has inaugurated this week the $1 billion Jetty Boil Off Gas (JBOG) Project aimed at capturing this gas and either re-liquefying it or utilizing it as a fuel gas.  Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, President and CEO of Qatar Petroleum and Chairman of Qatargas, said the JBOG Project is not only the biggest environmental project in the world, but also one of the largest investments of its kind.

The JBOG Project, which has been under construction since 2010, will result in a 90% reduction in flaring at the six LNG loading berths at Ras Laffan, according to Qatargas.  This is equivalent to annual Green House Gas (GHG) savings of 1.6 million tonnes of CO2.

At the same time, the project will help recover 29 billion standard cubic feet (bscf) of gas every year, enough gas to produce 750 MW of power or to power 300,000 homes.

Qatargas says the JBOG project is very unique in that it had to be designed to recover the boil off gas from multiple ships loading simultaneously. To solve the issue, the company partnered with General Electric (GE) to build the world’s largest Low Pressure (LP) Gas Compressors.

Since the start of the first recovery of jetty boil-off gas in October 2014, jetty boil-off gas has been recovered from over 500 ships.

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