Laffan Refinery’s project passes safety milestone

Diesel Hydrotreater (DHT) project has completed two million-man hours without any Lost Time Injuries (LTI), project developer and operator of Laffan Refinery Company (LRC) Qatargas, said Sunday. The DHT Unit, designed to produce diesel with less than ten parts per million sulphur content with the Euro 5 environmental specification, will be built and integrated into the existing Laffan Refinery by 2014. Samsung Engineering Company won the engineering, procurement and construction contract for this project in September 2011. The DHT Unit will process 54,000 barrels per stream day of straight run Light Gas Oil feedstock from the existing Laffan Refinery 1 (LR1) and the second planned refinery (LR2). The DHT Unit will be installed inside the plot of LR1, which is located in Ras Laffan Industrial City in Qatar. The LRC, which started production in September 2009, is one of the largest condensate refineries in the world. Commenting LTI landmark, Refinery Ventures Chief Operating Officer Salman Ashkanani said, “This is indeed an outstanding achievement as we move ahead towards completing the project safely. This important milestone proves the commitment of the entire project team to our incident and injury free safety culture. “We want to make sure that everyone working on this project goes home safely, every day. Our priority is to maintain our focus and deliver the project safely and on schedule.” The DHT project forms part of Qatar’s National Vision for ensuring efficient energy supplies for the country and meeting the most stringent environmental specifications. The processed diesel from the DHT Unit will be distributed within the State of Qatar through the existing truck loading Gantry facilities, which has also been constructed by LRC and is being operated by Qatar Fuel (Woqod). Civil works, structural and building works on the project are 80% complete. All major items of equipment have arrived on site including rotating and static equipment. All the major static equipment like reactor, column, vessels, and heat exchangers has been erected. The piping fabrication and installation at site is in progress. The planned start-up of this project is in the second quarter of 2014.