Tokyo, October 26, 2004 - Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) has received an order from CMS&A - a joint venture of Chiyoda Corporation and Snamprogetti SpA, one of Italy's largest engineering firms - for a large LNG (liquefied natural gas) storage tank in Qatar. The contract was concluded in a consortium with the French company VINCI. The order will mark MHI's fourth LNG tank installation in Qatar.
Under the contract, MHI will construct an above-ground tank with a storage capacity of 140,000 kiloliters within the Ras Laffan Industrial City, located 80km north of Doha, Qatar. The LNG Terminal is being developed by Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Company Ltd. II (Ras Gas II), a producer and exporter of LNG, established through a joint venture of Qatar Petroleum, and ExxonMobil RasGas Inc. The new tank with delivery scheduled for April 2007 will be utilized for the fifth LNG train to be built by CMS&A.
Presently three LNG trains are in operation at the Ras Laffan LNG Terminal, and a fourth train is under construction. The fifth train, to have a production capacity of 4.7 million tons per annum (MTPA), will be built with start up in early-2007. When the fifth train is completed, the Ras Laffan plant will be a huge LNG exporting terminal with a total production capability approaching 20 MTPA.
MHI has already delivered three LNG tanks for the first three trains now operating. These precedents, along with the experiences being set by two large LNG tanks currently under construction in Egypt, led to MHI's winning of this latest order
At a time when global energy supplies are becoming increasingly tight, consumption of LNG is expanding sharply in recognition of its environmental compatibility, emitting less carbon dioxide and no sulfur oxide compared to other fossil fuels. The increasing demand of LNG is driving plans for construction of LNG depots worldwide, including in Qatar, where an order for another large-scale LNG production facility is scheduled for placement in the near future. On the strength of this latest order in that country, MHI intends to undertake even more vigorous marketing activities going forward.
