Emerson (NYSE:EMR) and its Emerson Process Management business congratulated Qatargas Operating Company Ltd. on its recent inauguration of the world's largest facility for producing liquefied natural gas (LNG) in Ras Laffan Industrial City.
To capitalize on the growing demand for clean-burning natural gas, Qatargas is in the final stages of commissioning and startup of the largest LNG production "train" ever built. Qatargas plans to have three other mega trains completed to come on-line before the end of the decade. Each of these mega trains will be able to produce 7.8 million tons of LNG annually.
Qatargas selected Emerson to be the main instrumentation and controls contractor for the Qatargas 2 project. Emerson is supplying its world-class digital automation technologies to help make LNG production in each mega train as efficient, safe, and cost-effective as possible. Emerson has also been making significant investments in Qatar, where it has a long-term agreement as the preferred supplier of automation technologies and services to Qatargas, one of the world's leading producers of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
"What Qatargas has achieved is truly remarkable and is unprecedented in its size and scope, featuring significant new, game-changing technologies to achieve massive economies of scale," said Emerson Process Management Chairman John Berra. "The inauguration of Qatargas 2 marks a historic milestone for the LNG industry and Qatar's leadership in the LNG world."
Converting natural gas to LNG, which takes up a fraction of the volume, allows for cost-efficient storage and transport by ship. Through a complex process, the gas is purified and super-cooled to a liquid state. Once the LNG arrives at its port destination, it is reheated and returned to a gas at a regasification terminal for distribution through pipelines to customers.
Qatargas and Emerson signed an alliance agreement in 2007 with the challenge to aggressively expand its facilities to boost LNG production to 42 million tons annually by the end of the decade. To meet this ambitious goal, Qatargas is constructing production facilities on a scale that's never been built before - and Emerson's digital automation technologies play a vital role in the operations of each mega train.
For this project, Qatargas accessed Emerson's global network of experts and manufacturing capabilities during the project implementation. Thousands of Emerson personnel on three continents (Europe, North America, and Asia) have been involved in developing the process management technologies, devices, and software programming to support the Qatargas 2 project. Emerson engineers are also providing asset management services, advanced skills training, and a comprehensive parts management program.
In 2008, Emerson opened an office in Doha and now has more than 40 resident employees there, in addition to the 45 employees working on-site in Ras Laffan. Emerson is also developing plans to open a regional engineering and training center in Doha within the next year to better support Qatargas and other customers in Qatar and the northern part of the Middle East.