The world class facilities created by Qatar at Ras Laffan were the main reason why the country could attract so many international investors to the industrial city, said HE Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah.

“If you don’t have the infrastructure, you face difficulties in attracting foreign investors,” al-Attiyah said addressing the students of Qatar University College of Engineering (QU-CENG) as part of its ‘Distinguished Speakers Series’.

Themed “Ras Laffan, from idea… to reality”, the lecture was part of CENG’s initiative to host Qatari speakers who made great achievements in business and industry, while contributing to Qatar’s overall development.

The former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy and Industry said, “Ras Laffan is unique; it is the only comprehensive and most integrated industrial hydrocarbon area.”

“A visitor to Ras Laffan will be impressed by the facilities there. From a world-scale port to ship building and dry dock, the support facilities have helped Qatar become the world’s top LNG producer and exporter. Ras Laffan was not established for LNG alone – now the industrial city is one of the major producers of gas-to-liquids and associated products such as LPG, helium, sulphur, ethane and naphtha.”

He said the shipbuilding facility at Ras Laffan could now build ships up to 120 mts. Qatar also owns the largest LNG tankers in the world.

On Qatar’s proven track record as a reliable supplier, al-Attiyah said, “Recently, we celebrated 20 years of our first shipment to Japan. We have achieved this landmark without any contractual violation or supply disruptions.”

When a tsunami hit Fukushima in March 2011, Japan was forced to close down as many as 33 nuclear power plants. This landed Japan in a huge power deficit.

“Japan then requested us to provide them huge quantities of LNG and at a great speed. We could provide LNG to Japan and meet their dire requirements at a time of great need for the Japanese people.”

The founder and chairman of the Doha-based Abdullah Bin Hamad Al-Attiyah International Foundation for Energy & Sustainable Development said many of the by-products from gas production have huge markets now.

“A case in point is sulphur. During our initial days of LNG production, we did not know what to do with sulphur that has to be extracted from gas to make it lean. But soon we found out that sulphur is a major component in phosphate fertilisers. Today, China and India are major consumers of Qatar’s sulphur.”

Similarly, he said, Qatar is the largest exporter and second largest producer of helium in the world. Qatar’s North Field holds some 26% of known helium reserves.

Helium is a product, which is derived from natural gas during processing and is recovered from some natural gas deposits where it is found in low concentrations. It is extracted during the final stages of the LNG cooling process through various stages of separation.

Ras Laffan Industrial City is Qatar's main site for production of gas-to-liquid (GTL) and hosts ORYX GTL and Pearl GTL plants.

Al-Attiyah noted that gas was discovered offshore Qatar as early as the 70s itself and Ras Laffan was known even at that time as home to the “largest and unique gas field” in the world.

But there was only little progress in gas exploration then because of a lack of interest in it, he said. Gas exploration was stopped because of the oil boom of the 70s and early 80s when liquefied natural gas (LNG) was only known on a small scale in Japan and South Korea.

He said: “After the oil price drop since 1984, gas exploration was launched again at a critical time and was supported by His Highness the Father Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani.”

Al-Attiyah said Ras Laffan was able to scale up LNG production from 6mn tonnes to 77mn tonnes a year within 10 years.

On hydrocarbon prices, al-Attiyah said, “These are cyclical. Sometimes the price goes up, sometimes it comes down. It is quite normal.”

Attendees included QU President Dr Hassan al-Derham, CENG Dean Dr Khalifa al-Khalifa, and Qatar Petrochemical Company (Qapco) chief human capital officer Abdulla Ahmad Naji, as well as QU leadership, faculty, staff and students.

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