By Pratap John
Qatar’s annual liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) export capacity will exceed 12mn tonnes within two years, HE the Minister of State for Energy and Industry Affairs Dr Mohamed bin Saleh al-Sada has said.
Currently, Qatar’s annual LPG export capacity is 8mn tonnes, al-Sada said in his keynote address at the fourth LPG Trade Summit at the Grand Hyatt in Doha yesterday. “We are emerging as a major LPG exporter,” al-Sada said.
Currently, Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest LPG exporter.
Qatar, al-Sada said, had witnessed “unparalleled expansion and development” across the whole chain of the oil and gas sectors.
Under the visionary leadership of HH the Emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, Qatar has embarked on an extensive development of its North Field reservoir, the largest non-associated gas field in the world. Qatar is currently the world’s largest exporter and trans-shipper of LNG. 
As many as 11 of Qatar’s 14 LNG trains (in Qatargas and RasGas) are now in operation.  These include three of the six mega LNG Trains with a capacity of 7.8mn tonnes per annum.
With the completion of these mega-trains, which are the largest of their kind in the world, Qatar’s annual LNG export capacity exceeded 54mn tonnes. Each of these mega trains also produces about half a million ton per annum of LPG.
Al-Sada said that 2009 had been the most intensive year of project activity in Qatar. In addition to the three LNG trains, Qatar recently commissioned a new 146,000bpd condensate refinery which produces naphtha, jet fuel and gasoil.
“We are also commissioning the next phase of our Al Khaleej Gas project to meet domestic demands, and Qatalum, a world-scale aluminium facility, is due next year,” al-Sada said.
In parallel with these developments, Qatar operates Oryx GTL, a gas-to-liquids plant, which enables the production of 34,000bpd of specialty products, including clean transportation fuels.
There are several key projects under advanced stages of development that will contribute to further boosting Qatar’s energy and petroleum product exports, he said. In addition to a further three 7.8mn tpy LNG mega-trains, 2010/11 will see the start-up of the world-scale, 140,000bpd Pearl GTL project.