Qatar expanding gas production with US$1b recovery plant

[QATAR] Qatar, the world's biggest producer of liquified natural gas, is gathering even more gas with a US$1 billion plant that is recovering what used to be wasted fuel.

The Jetty Boil-Off Gas Recovery Project, known as JBOG, will recover 29 billion cubic feet of gas a year, enough to power 300,000 homes, Qatar Gas said in a statement Tuesday. Since the plant started in October in Ras Laffan Industrial City north of Doha, it has recovered gas from over 500 ships.

The project has capacity to produce about 100 million cubic feet of natural gas a day, or the equivalent of 600,000 tons a year of LNG, gas cooled to a liquid for transport by ship, making it the world's biggest plant of its kind. The gas that used to be burned into the atmosphere when fuel was loaded on ships is being sent to Qatar's LNG production plants, which had output of about 77 million tons last year.

The plant is a joint venture of Qatar Petroleum, the country's state-controlled energy company, Exxon Mobil Corp, Total SA, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and ConocoPhillips. It's operated by Qatar Liquefied Gas Co and Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Co, which run 14 plants.

BLOOMBERG