GE Oil and Gas technology has played a key role in the successful start-up of RasGas Company's LNG Train 5 in Qatar, said a company official.

Experts believe the Ras Laffan Industrial City project could help make Qatar the world’s largest LNG producer.

Train 5 has a production capacity of 4.7 million tons of LNG per year, bringing Qatar’s total LNG production capacity to approximately 31 million tons per year.

LNG is one of the fastest growing segments of the global energy industry, and is expected to provide a major source of natural gas as part of the world’s energy mix moving forward in the 21st century.

A ceremony was organised to celebrate the successful completion of RasGas expansion projects and honour the key players behind the project.

The Train 5 project was completed ahead of time and under budget, according to Dr Mohammed Saleh Al Sada, Minister of State for Energy and Industrial Affairs and Managing Director of RasGas, a joint venture between Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil.

“The engineering, procurement and construction timetable was 30 months, a very challenging time-frame for such a project. The project was completed approximately two months ahead of schedule,” he said.

Under a multi-million dollar contract sealed in 2004, GE Oil & Gas supplied two Frame 7EA mechanical drive gas turbines, two Frame 6B gas turbine-generator packages, one Frame 5D residue gas compressor package, and one Rotoflow Frame 60 turbo expander-compressor for Train 5.

All of the gas turbines are equipped with GE Dry Low NO combustion systems to meet the stringent NO emissions levels required in Qatar.

“This is the first installation of this technology in Qatar, and makes Train 5 one of the most eco-friendly LNG plants in the country,” said Claudi Santiago, GE senior vice president and president and CEO of GE oil & gas. -TradeArabia News Service