New Qatargas Starts Commercial Operations

Qatar Petroleum has now formally merged Qatargas with RasGas, as announced in December 2016.  The combined entity will have some 77mn mt/yr of LNG to sell, with more to come next decade, now that the moratorium on the North Field has been lifted.

“As of the first of January 2018, all the ventures that were operated by Qatargas and RasGas are now operated by the new ‘Qatargas’, which is the result of the integration of two great energy centres of excellence,” said Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, the president & CEO of Qatar Petroleum January 3.

“Today, I am pleased to announce that we have accomplished our objective with great success, and on time. Qatargas will be the single entity exporting Qatari LNG to the world, under a one shared vision, one management system, and one work culture. It also gives me great pleasure to announce the appointment of the current Qatargas CEO Sheikh Khalid Bin Khalifa Al Thani as the CEO for the new Qatargas,” he added.

The announcement was made in the presence of representatives of US ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips, French Total and Anglo-Dutch Shell, the main international shareholders in both companies. “It is important to highlight that this integration will ultimately save us around 2bn Qatari riyals [$550mn] in operating cost annually,” Al-Kaabi said (pictured below).

 (Credit: QP)