RasGas Contracts GE Energy For Maintenance.

Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Co. Ltd (RasGas) GE Energy, a unit of General Electric of the US, on Dec. 22 signed a 24-year Contractual Service Agreement (CSA) with a total value exceeding $400m. The contract covers the maintenance of 22 gas turbines at the three RasGas ventures and their LNG trains at the Ras Laffan Industrial City. GE Energy has produced and installed some of these turbines and has the contract to supply the others in the coming years. (See details in the survey of Qatar in the current APS Review Vol. 65, Nos. 9-12).

The turbines include 10 GE Frame 7001EA driving refrigeration compressors units, nine GE Frame 6001B driving power generators units and three GE Frame 5002D driving gas compressors units. Together these turbines represent about 1,300 MW of power to drive the various applications for production of LNG.

The GE gas turbines are some of the most advanced turbo machinery in the industry. GE Energy said in a press release: RasGas has chosen GE to maintain these turbines in view of "GE's in-depth knowledge of the advanced machinery and their ability to adequately support RasGas maintenance activities". This contract will cover planned maintenance and support for any unplanned outages. It also incorporates a comprehensive performance incentive package where rewards and corresponding liquidated damages are applied. The incentive plans include availability, outage duration and unit power.

To support the contract, the company said, GE will operate with a permanent team resident in Ras Laffan. It is expected that this team will work to enhance the plant availability while ensuring the highest safety and environmental emissions standards. To achieve this, the team will have access to the resources of central engineering base at GE headquarters. This agreement marks the continuation of a strong partnership forged between the two companies when RasGas purchased the first GE gas turbines back in 1996 for LNG Train 1.

Each of the three RasGas LNG ventures has a different ownership structure and different markets. The main partners in them are QP and ExxonMobil. The first RasGas venture targets the South Korean and Indian markets. The GasGas-II is mainly for Europe, and the first of its train will be on stream in late 2007. RasGas-III is for the US, where ExxonMobil and QP are partners in a receiving and re-gasification system being built and to be onstream later in this decade.

As custodian and executor of the RasGas-GE contract, RasGas will act on behalf of the first RasGas venture, RasGas-II, RasGas-III and ExxonMobil Middle East Gas Marketing Ltd. These are the owners of the gas turbines.