20/04/2014 05:25 AST
Qatargas has achieved another “significant” safety milestone by completing 12 years of operations at its offshore facilities without a Lost Time Incident (LTI).
“This outstanding performance across the entire offshore facilities and operations is the result of the continuous and proven commitment to safety, by the company’s leadership and workforce,” Qatargas said.
Comprising nine offshore platforms, the Qatargas offshore facilities supply gas and condensate to the onshore liquefaction plant at Ras Laffan, the largest in the world, with a production capacity of 42mn tonnes per year (tpy) of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
The offshore facilities are outstanding not only in terms of safety record, but also from a reliability perspective, ensuring sustained production of LNG from Qatargas’ onshore plant.
Qatargas CEO Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa al-Thani said, “I would like to congratulate all the teams involved, particularly the Offshore Operations team, on this brilliant safety record. This would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication by everyone working on North Field Bravo along with the continuous support from different departments across Qatargas.
“As we move closer to becoming the world’s premier LNG Company, our primary focus continues to be on safety. Incident and injury free operations are achieved when safety takes priority above everything else, and this is what we have been able to maintain at Qatargas, through a number of initiatives and programmes.”
Qatargas Offshore operations manager Mansoor al-Marzooqi said, “At all levels of the offshore operations, we reiterate the message that we are each responsible for our own safety and those around us. For the offshore team, working and living in the middle of the sea presents a number of challenges including tough weather conditions and a number of major activities that require careful planning and preparation. The team successfully overcame these challenges, proving their strong commitment to maintaining an incident and injury free work environment.”
Qatargas has several programmes in place that support its goal of maintaining ‘incident and injury free’ operations. Risk assessments, permit to work system, job safety analysis are some of these programmes.
Qatargas’ offshore facilities are located approximately 80km northeast of Qatar’s mainland. A total of 85 wells together supply approximately 7.5bn standard cubic feet of gas to the seven LNG production trains onshore.
The gas, along with the associated condensate is transferred to shore via subsea pipelines. The North Field Bravo offshore complex, which was commissioned in 1996, is the heart of Qatargas’ offshore operations.
Qatargas offshore operations operate three assets – Qatargas 1, Qatargas 2 and Qatargas 3 and 4 (joint asset of Qatargas 3 and Qatargas 4). The main complex known as “North Field Bravo” (NFB) is situated about 80km north east of Qatar’s mainland. There are seven remote wellheads platforms, and the farthest platform is wellhead 4, which is 29.6km away from the NFB complex.
NFB has some 90 Qatargas direct-hire employees and 36 permanent contractors working onboard for 28 days followed by a field break for 28 days. The average number of personnel on NFB at any given time is around 120. They are responsible for meeting the operational, maintenance and project activity requirements on the complex.
Qatargas has hired three marine vessels (one safety stand-by and two for dynamic positioning) for the transfer of passengers and materials. The materials include food supply, plant equipment related spares and chemicals, which are normally brought in once a week.
Gulf Times
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