Qatargas announces successful start-up of Jetty Boil-off Gas Recovery Project
Qatargas has announced the safe start-up of the Jetty Boil-off Gas Recovery (JBOG) Project in Ras Laffan Industrial City. This landmark $1bn environmental project is designed to eliminate flaring at the LNG Terminal, the company said in its press release.
The main shareholders of the JBOG Project are Qatar Petroleum, ExxonMobil, Total, ConocoPhillips and Shell, while the facilities are operated by Qatargas and RasGas, the two largest LNG producers in the world.
The JBOG facilities started up successfully during the first week of October, and have been performing safely and reliably. Around 100 million standard cubic feet per day of natural gas which used to be burnt and wasted during LNG ship loading is now being recovered and utilized in the LNG production plants as fuel. Over a period of 30 years the JBOG Project will save nearly one trillion cubic feet of gas for the State of Qatar.
The operation of these facilities reduces the greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere, and helps in maintaining a clean environment for the residents of the State of Qatar.
Mr. Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, the Managing Director of Qatar Petroleum and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Qatargas highlighted the significance of the JBOG project as not only one of the largest environmental investments but also the largest LNG Boil-off Recovery Project in the world. He said “the development of the Jetty Boil-off Gas Recovery Project was initiated by Qatar Petroleum nearly a decade ago. JBOG is set to become a landmark project for the State of Qatar, underlining Qatar’s commitment to balance industrial development with care for the environment. This huge investment by Qatar Petroleum and its partners will reduce the carbon footprint of the 77 Mta of LNG production facilities to the minimum practically possible contributing to the environmental development pillar of the Qatar National Vision 2030.”
The Engineering, Procurement and Construction Management (EPCm) contract for the project was awarded to Fluor in the USA in February 2010. The detailed design and procurement services were carried out at Fluor’s offices in Sugar Land, Texas, and New Delhi, India. The main equipment on the project was supplied by General Electric, Emerson and ABB.
The construction of the project started in Ras Laffan City in mid-2011, with the bulk of the site work executed by some of the leading construction contractors in Qatar, i.e., Ammico, STFA, Qcon, Qatar Kentz and Medgulf. The work site saw a peak of around 3,000 people working hard to finish the project.
The project design is based on the collection of the LNG boil-off gas from the LNG carriers and the transfer of this gas to a Central Compression Area via large diameter stainless steel pipelines. At the Central Compression Area, the gas is compressed and sent to the LNG trains for use as fuel gas or for conversion into LNG.
A significant part of the JBOG Project was devoted to upgrading around 85 LNG carrier ships to make them ready for recovering the boil-off gas. Ships ranging from Qmax, Qflex, conventional Membrane and Moss type were covered successfully. This complicated work is largely complete, resulting in the achievement of the gas recovery target of 90%.
The environmental credentials of the JBOG Project were on display during the COP 18 Environmental Conference in Doha in 2012. A working model of the project was put on display at the conference exhibition, giving hundreds of visitors a glimpse of what the State of Qatar is doing to reduce emissions.
The start-up of the JBOG Project has demonstrated that Qatar is not only the largest producer of cleaner energy for the world, in the form of LNG, but has also invested heavily into ensuring that its LNG production facilities are one of the “greenest” in the world.