Qatargas delegates presented papers on a wide range of topics at the 9th International Petroleum Technology Conference (IPTC), held at the Qatar National Convention Centre in Doha from 06 – 09 December. Qatargas is a Titanium Sponsor of the Young Member Activities at the event.
During a panel session titled “Investing in Energy and Optimising Costs for the Long Term,” Sheikh Khalid Bin Abdulla Al-Thani, Qatargas Chief Operating Officer – Engineering & Ventures, presented a paper on "Qatargas Environmental Projects: Past and Present". In his presentation, he shed light on and shared insights into some of the major projects Qatargas has recently completed or that are currently under development, with the objective of improving energy efficiency and minimising environmental impact in alignment with the goals set by the Qatar National Vision 2030.
He noted that these projects included a world class Jetty Boil-off Gas (JBOG) Recovery Facility, which was completed in October 2014 and is now fully operational. It was built safely, spending over 22 million man-hours with no lost time incidents. More than 2,500 people from Qatargas, its contractors, subcontractors and vendors worked in Ras Laffan City port area. The project has resulted in a 90 per cent reduction in flaring at the six LNG loading berths at Ras Laffan Port, saving 0.63 million tonnes per year of LNG. This amount of gas is capable of powering over 300,000 homes per year and represents a saving of almost one trillion cubic feet of gas for the State of Qatar over a period of 30 years, - a significant reduction in the Country's carbon footprint.
Sheikh Khalid Bin Abdulla listed Qatargas’ flare reduction projects, an area the Company invests in heavily with the objective of achieving a flaring target of less than 0.3 per cent of the sweet gas produced. Qatargas has completed several projects related to flare optimization initiatives such as the Purge Reduction Project. With the development of improved operating procedures, the Company has reduced flaring by more than 50 per cent and is currently progressing several other Flare reduction initiatives to realize the target reduction to below 6,000 mmscf (million standard cubic feet) per year by 2017.
He also highlighted the waste water reduction projects of Qatargas noting that this is another focus area for the Company and by which, it is aiming to achieve Zero Liquid Discharge to the Sea. To improve Energy efficiency, he said, one of the key ongoing projects is the QG1 Waste Heat Recovery Project which envisages conversion of the existing gas turbine generators into a cogeneration plant thereby having a positive impact on the CO2 and NOx emissions by improving the overall fuel utilization efficiency.
The bulk of other Qatargas presentations in the conference were about the technical innovations and challenges related to offshore gas reservoir and production. Among them, a paper titled ‘A Premier Qatargas Process to Optimize and Integrate Gas Production from North Field Reservoir’ discussed the need for a structured approach to create optimized planning and refining the processes and tools with expert stakeholder inputs to optimize and integrate gas production.
Another paper, titled ‘Qatargas Wastewater Treatment Plants: An Advanced Design for Water Reuse’ discussed the project’s objectives including eliminating the discharge of clean wastewater to the Arabian Gulf, reducing the amount of wastewater sent to injection wells, and producing water for reuse as boiler feed water. The paper ‘Wellhead and X-Mas Tree Seal Integrity Challenges in Qatargas’ shared the measures taken by Qatargas to minimize unintentional environmental leakage risk of wellbore fluid by effective control of well barrier elements and implementing Risk Assessment recommendations to avoid unacceptable risk.
Another paper titled, ‘Pipeline Integrity Management – the Qatargas Approach,’ highlighted the implementation of the Pipeline Integrity Management System (PIMS) documentation, role of risk assessment in pipeline integrity management, and the need for continuous inspection and monitoring.
Other Qatargas papers at the conference included a wide range of subjects from specialists and engineers in the Reservoir and Production and Engineering department of Qatargas. They included such titles as: ‘Gas Reservoir Management: How to Improve Gas Production Allocation per Reservoir in commingled Wells using Geochemistry Technology?” ‘Fresh Cooling Water Treatment And Corrosion Management’, ‘Smart Data Management for the Giant North Field’ ‘Qatargas Well Production Back-allocation Project - Methodology & System Requirements’ ‘Qatargas Plateau Maintenance project – A Case Study; Enlargement of Feed-gas and Handling Capacity’ and ‘Assessment of Petroleum Computing to Steer Investment and Development Strategy.’
Hundreds of conference delegates visited the Qatargas stand at the exhibition held in conjunction with the conference.