The Siemens Industrial Solutions and Services (I&S) Group has received orders to equip the two new gas liquefaction lines 6 and 7 of RasGas Co. Ltd., Qatar, with power engineering technology and to supply compressor drives for the reliquefaction of “boil-off” gas.
The emirate of Qatar has the third largest reserves of natural gas in the world. The natural gas extracted in the north field is liquefied in Ras Laffan Industrial City, which is located approximately 80 kilometers to the north of Doha, the capital. In 2005, around 16 million metric tons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) were produced there, mainly for export to Japan and India. In the coming years, Qatar wants to further increase its production and export of liquefied natural gas. For this purpose, the CTJV consortium, made of up of the Chiyoda Corporation, Japan, and the French company Technip S.A., will build two new gas liquefaction lines for RasGas, each line with a capacity of 7.8 million metric tons per year. Commissioning of the new LNG lines is scheduled to take place at the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2010, respectively.
CTJV awarded the contract for the power distribution systems for the new LNG lines to Siemens. The scope of supply includes 132 kV, 33 kV and 6.6 kV medium-voltage switchgear as well as low-voltage switchgear. In addition, Siemens is responsible for supervising the installation work as well as for testing and pre-commissioning of the power distribution systems.
Yasuo Sakamoto, Purchasing Manager at Chiyoda and responsible for the project, said: “Our aim is to become the No. 1 in terms of reliability and to achieve this by successfully completing the LNG lines. This can only be done with the help of reliable systems and equipment. This is why CTJV decided in favor of Siemens.”
For this expansion of the gas liquefaction facilities of RasGas, the U.S. company, Fluor Corporation, is to install auxiliary equipment, tank farms and distribution facilities in the framework of an EPCM (Engineering, Procurement and Construction Management) contract. In this connection, Dresser-Rand is responsible for the compressor equipment for the reliquefaction of vaporized petroleum gas (Liquefied Petroleum Gas, LPG). Siemens is supplying four “Sisog Compd” compressor drives for this purpose. These systems, each having an output of 13 megawatts, are to be used as the main drives for reliquefaction and are to be put into operation in 2007. The compressor drives are designed for rough operation outdoors at ambient temperatures of up to 50° Celsius and are fitted with a special cooling system.
