The North Field East LNG project being developed by Qatargas, a subsidiary of Qatar Petroleum is expected to increase the LNG production capacity of Qatar from 77 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) to 110Mtpa by 2025.
The North Field East LNG project is being developed as part of the first phase of the North Field expansion project which is expected to produce the first gas by the end of 2025.
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The second phase of the North Field expansion, known as the North Field South project, is expected to further increase the LNG production capacity of Qatar from 110Mtpa to 126Mtpa by 2027.
Discovered in 1971 and brought on-stream in 1991, the North Field is claimed to be the biggest non-associated natural gas field in the world.
Location
The North Field East LNG project is located in Ras Laffan, northeast Qatar. Qatargas currently operates 14 LNG trains at Ras Laffan with an overall LNG production capacity of 77Mtpa.
North Field East LNG facility make-up
The North Field East LNG project involves the construction of four LNG mega trains with a capacity of approximately 7.8Mtpa each.
The various other equipment that will be installed as part of the project will include refrigerant compressor trains, cryogenic heat exchangers, subcooling heat exchangers, Rotoflow turbomachinery high-pressure compressor-loaded turboexpanders, and nitrogen economiser cold boxes.
The new LNG trains will receive natural gas from the North Field East project.
North Field East project details
The North Field East project will consist of a total of 80 development wells and eight unmanned wellhead platforms. The drilling of wells commenced in March 2020 while four wellhead platforms were installed in the field as of May 2020.
The North Field East project was formerly known as the North Field Expansion project.
Contracts awarded
Baker Hughes was contracted to provide four main refrigerant compressor trains for the North Field East LNG project from Qatar Petroleum in September 2020. The contract scope includes 12 gas turbines and 24 centrifugal compressors.
Each main refrigerant compressor train will comprise three Frame 9E DLN Ultra-Low NOx gas turbines and six centrifugal compressors. The centrifugal compressors will receive power from gas turbines.
Honeywell was awarded a contract to provide instrumentation and control solutions to automate North Field East project in October 2020. The contract scope spans from Lean Project Execution to cybersecurity.
Honeywell will deploy its Industrial Internet of Things-enabled LEAP (Lean Execution for Automation Projects) solution, as well as smart junction boxes (SJB) technology for the project. LEAP incorporates virtualisation, universal input/output (UIO), channel technology, and cloud engineering. SJB technology for control and safety systems.
Air Products was contracted to supply its proprietary AP-X natural gas liquefaction process technology and equipment for the project in August 2020. The equipment to be supplied includes the main cryogenic heat exchangers, subcooling heat exchangers, Rotoflow turbomachinery high-pressure compressor-loaded turboexpanders, and nitrogen economiser cold boxes.
Chiyoda Corporation was awarded a front-end engineering and design (FEED) contract for the onshore facilities of the North Field East project in March 2018. The scope of the contract included the basic design for three LNG mega trains of 7.8Mtpa each with associated pre-investment to add a fourth LNG train in the future.
