Honeywell's UOP and QP to Jointly Develop Natural Gas Treating Technology
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UOP LLC, a Honeywell company, has announced that it has signed a joint research and development agreement with Qatar Petroleum (QP) to develop new ways to cost effectively treat natural gas for the production of Liquefied Natural Gas, or LNG.
Under the agreement, the two companies will work together to develop more efficient technologies to remove contaminants from natural gas, so that it can be liquefied for transportation by ship and other means.
The agreement was signed at QP headquarters by His Excellency Dr. Mohammed bin Saleh Al-Sada, Minister of Energy and Industry and Chairman of QP, and UOP President and CEO Dr. Rajeev Gautam.
Honeywell's UOP is a leader in natural gas treating technologies, which are currently used in QP's LNG and gas processing facilities. QP's joint venture companies, Qatargas and RasGas, have a combined LNG production capacity of 77 million tonnes per annum (mta), making Qatar the world's largest producer and exporter of LNG.
H.E. Dr. Al-Sada said the agreement is an important milestone in Qatar's gas industry. "Qatar is constantly working to facilitate the optimum development of its hydrocarbon resources, and this agreement is another step in that direction," said H.E. Dr. Al-Sada. "Developing more efficient technologies to remove contaminants from natural gas will help boost Qatar's reputation as a safe, reliable supplier of natural gas as well as high-quality products."
Dr. Gautam said, "Global natural gas demand is growing rapidly and LNG production is critical to meeting the needs of regions not served by pipelines and to enable global trade. Qatar Petroleum is a recognized leader in the production of LNG for world markets, and we look forward to extending our long-standing partnership to develop technology in this important field."
UOP's separation technology and equipment remove contaminants such as sulfur, water and carbon dioxide from natural gas in order to meet rigorous product specifications and requirements for downstream transmission and liquefaction equipment.
In liquefied form, natural gas can be easily and efficiently transported to markets around the world, where it is used for a wide variety of energy applications.
Honeywell's UOP Gas Processing and Hydrogen business unit offers technology, equipment and materials to treat and process natural gas, as well as to purify the hydrogen used in refineries. Its gas technologies extract water, mercury, sulfur, carbon dioxide and other contaminants from raw natural gas.
UOP also offers technologies to recover natural gas liquids (NGLs). The business has supplied technology to more than 3,600 individual process units for gas processing in a broad range of applications through the world.
UOP has increased its offerings in natural gas in recent years. Earlier this year, it launched UOP Separex Flux+ and Select membrane elements to remove contaminants such as acid gas and water from natural gas. In 2012, the company purchased a majority stake in Thomas Russell Co., which offers technologies and modularized packaged plants enabling shale and conventional natural gas producers to remove contaminants from natural gas and recover high-value NGLs used for petrochemicals and fuels. Thomas Russell products are now part of the UOP Russell line. UOP also has marketing alliances with Twister B.V., and Ortloff Engineers, Ltd. for natural gas separation technology to recover NGLs.
Last year, QP and UOP collaborated to establish the first Engineering Design Seminar program in the Middle East to meet the growing demand for highly-trained engineers who specialize in refinery process units and equipment.
QP is a state-owned public corporation established by Emiri Decree No. 10 in 1974. It is responsible for all phases of the oil and gas industry in the State of Qatar.
The principal activities of QP, its subsidiaries and joint ventures are the exploration, production, local and international sale of crude oil, natural gas and gas liquids, refined products, synthetic fuels, petrochemicals, fuel additives, fertilizers, liquefied natural gas (LNG), steel and aluminium.
