Qatargas, the largest LNG producer in the world, recently loaded the 2000th LNG cargo from the Common Lean LNG Storage and Loading Asset.
The Common Lean LNG storage and loading facilities are built to store LNG produced from the six mega LNG trains at Ras Laffan Industrial City (Qatargas Trains 4, 5, 6 and 7 and RasGas Trains 6 and7) and load Q-Flex and Q-Max ships in addition to conventional ships from Berths 4, 5 and 6 and the Qatargas ships loaded at LNG Berth 3 to customers across Asia, Europe and the Americas.
Commenting on this achievement, Khalid Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, Qatargas Chief Executive Officer said: “I would like to congratulate all the teams involved on this milestone achievement which further demonstrates how we manage and operate all of our facilities safely, efficiently and reliably. This is a significant milestone, not only for Qatargas, but also for Qatar’s LNG industry on the whole as it enhances our reputation as a reliable supplier of LNG worldwide. What makes this achievement all the more remarkable is that it has been achieved without any Lost Time Incidents (LTI) .”
The milestone achievement of 2000 cargoes from the Common Lean LNG Storage and Loading Asset was reached in less than five years after the first loading from the facility. The Qatargas Q-Flex vessel “Al Hamla” was the first ship to load lean LNG from Berth 4 on 15th March 2009 during the Expansion Start-up stage. In October 2009, the Qatargas Q-Flex vessel “Al Kharaitiyat” became the first ship to load lean LNG from Berth 5, while the first ship to load lean LNG from Berth 6 was the RasGas Q-Flex vessel “Al Sahla” in February 2011.
The Common Lean LNG storage and Loading facilities include eight LNG tanks, each with a storage capacity of 140,000 cubic metres. The facility also recovers Boil-Off gas (BOG) from the LNG Tanks. The recovered gas is supplied to the LNG trains as fuel gas. Four LNG loading berths are also part of the facility.