UOP, a Honeywell company, has signed a joint research and development agreement with Qatar Petroleum (QP) to develop new ways to cost effectively treat natural gas for the production of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG).  

Under the agreement, the two companies will work together to develop more efficient technologies to remove contaminants from natural gas, so that it can be liquefied for transportation by ship and other means.

The agreement was signed at QP headquarters by Dr Mohammed bin Saleh Al-Sada, Minister of Energy and Industry and chairman of QP, and UOP president and CEO Dr Rajeev Gautam.

Honeywell's UOP is a leader in natural gas treating technologies, which are currently used in QP's LNG and gas processing facilities. QP's joint venture companies, Qatargas and RasGas, have a combined LNG production capacity of 77 million tonnes per annum (mta), making Qatar the world's largest producer and exporter of LNG.

UOP's separation technology and equipment remove contaminants such as sulfur, water and carbon dioxide from natural gas in order to meet rigorous product specifications and requirements for downstream transmission and liquefaction equipment. In liquefied form, natural gas can be easily and efficiently transported to markets around the world, where it is used for a wide variety of energy applications. -TradeArabia News Service