Ras Laffan Industrial City (RLC) covers 248 sq km, including the Southern Reserve Zone that is reserved for possible development in the future, and is located about 80 km from Qatar’s giant North Field, the world’s largest single non-associated gas field with approximately 900 trillion cubic feet of proven reserves. RLC’s central location on international trade marine routes and its ability to accommodate large-scale development makes it the perfect location for Qatar’s growing hydrocarbons industry.
RLC is an important milestone in Qatar’s endeavour to become the world’s leading natural gas city. Working in close coordination with stakeholders, such as end users and government bodies, the management has created an attractive business climate and provides a range of customer-oriented services, infrastructure and facilities.
The approximately 8.5-sq-km RLC port is one of the world’s largest LNG-exporting facilities. It is equipped with a state-of-the-art control tower and associated navigational aids; other services include bunkering and berthing facilities, emergency and oil spill response. Current export is around 31 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of LNG, and this figure is expected to reach 77 mtpa around 2010. A major expansion of RLC port that is currently underway will enhance its capacity to meet the requirements of LNG, Gas-to-Liquids (GTL) and petrochemicals over the next 20 years. This extension includes new LNG and liquid product berths, a dry dock facility, a container terminal for petrochemicals export, dry cargo berths, oil rig support and new service berths.
The infrastructure division at RLC oversees developments and construction activities. Support industrial and service areas are provided for development. Work force accommodation facilities are currently housing around 100,000 workers. An environmental division provides a range of services to ensure that the industrial activities in RLC comply with environmentally sustainable objectives.
These world-class facilities have attracted many local and multinational energy giants. ORYX GTL is the world’s largest Gas to Liquids (GTL) facility operating in Ras Laffan and Shell’s Pearl GTL facility is under construction. Dolphin Energy’s Gas processing plant is currently exporting gas to UAE. In addition to the RasGas and Qatargas LNG plants, Ras Laffan Power Company, Qatar Power Company, Al Khaleej Gas Project (AKG 1) and the Ras Laffan Helium Project are already operational; an ethane cracker, condensate refinery, second phase of the Al Khaleej Gas project are presently under construction.