On Thursday, the Port of Rotterdam Authority and QP-Ras Laffan Industrial City, the site of the world’s largest producers and exporter of LNG, signed a new Memorandum of Understanding, the aim of which is to further intensify the strategic cooperation between these two organisations.
The ceremony was done at the Erhama bin Jaber Al Jalahma Shipyard at Ras Laffan in the presence of HM Queen Beatrix, of the Netherlands who is on a state visit to Qatar. Mr. Abdulaziz Jassim Al-Muftah, Director of Ras Laffan Industrial City and Mr Roland Van Assche, Director at the Port of Rotterdam signed the document on behalf of their respective organisations.
The Rotterdam Port Authority and Qatar Petroleum-RLC previously signed a cooperation agreement in 2008. In it, they agreed to support and promote each other on important strategic matters related to hydrocarbon projects and port operations.
The new agreement, in concrete terms, will attempt to promote cargo flows between these two principal industrial areas. RLC will actively assist the Port of Rotterdam companies to contact potential counterparts and clients in Qatar. In return, Port of Rotterdam will make its vast experience and knowledge of managing and operating a multifaceted industrial area and port to RLC management. The two parties will also examine other areas of cooperation whereby both parties can benefit.
Qatar Petroleum is a state-owned company, responsible for all gas and oil operations in Qatar. Ras Laffan Industrial City, a QP directorate is a multi-purpose and multi-dimensional industrial city providing integrated services and world-class facilities to the industries based there. With Houston and Singapore, Rotterdam is one of the most important petrochemical complex in the world and is the European market leader for oil and chemical products.
The cooperation is in line with the further development of Rotterdam as an energy port. This year, the Gate terminal will open and Rotterdam will get its first LNG import facility. At the end of 2010, Ras Laffan based gas producing companies reached a production capacity of 77 million tonnes of LNG a year. Earlier this year, Ras Laffan Port accommodated 6 LNG tankers on its berths loading simultaneously for world-wide destinations.
The new cooperation agreement is in keeping with the Rotterdam Port Authority’s international policy towards cooperation with prominent multinationals to promote, among other things, cargo flows and commercial activities abroad.
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Source: Port of Rotterdam, March 11, 2011;