Qatar Rents 12 LNG Tankers
Qatari Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Company (RasGas-3) on Monday signed a 20-year contract with two tankers companies to rent 12 natural gas tankers starting on 2008. The agreement was signed by Qatari Minister of Finance and Board Chairman of RasGas-3 Yousef Hussein Kamal, Deputy Board Chairman Dr. Ibrahim Al-Ibrahim, and representatives of the foreign companies. A company source said that the company will receive the ships between March and August 2008, noting that ships' capacity ranges between 210,000 and 217, 000 cubic meters of liquefied natural gas. Meanwhile, contracts to build the ships were signed between the two foreign companies and three Korean heavy industries companies of Hyundai, Samsung, and DAEWOO.
ExxonMobil, Qatar Petroleum Progress LNG Project
In a joint statement issued at the conclusion of an inauguration ceremony held in Doha, Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil Ras Laffan (III) Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Exxon Mobil Corporation, announced the launch of Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Company Limited (RL3). RL3 is a further expansion of the existing LNG production facilities operated by RasGas Company Limited (Qatar Petroleum 70 percent; ExxonMobil 30 percent) at Ras Laffan Industrial city in North Eastern Qatar. This project is planned to bring the total number of trains operated by RasGas to seven (Trains 1 and 2 in RL, 3 through 5 in RL II and 6 and 7 in RL 3) and is expected to increase RasGas LNG production capacity by more than 70 percent. Full-chain investment in RL 3 is estimated at near $14 billion.
