GE Energy said it has been awarded a US$200 million contract by Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil to supply three turbo compressor strings for the liquefaction process at the Qatargas II LNG Expansion Project. Qatargas II, the world’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, also will feature the world’s largest trains for LNG production. Qatar Petroleum owns 70% of the project and ExxonMobil 30%. Located in Qatar, Ras Laffan Industrial City, each Qatargas II liquefaction train will be rated for an annual capacity of 7.8 million tons. Startup of the first train is planned for the winter of 2007. GE Energy is supplying three MS9001E gas turbine-driven compression strings with low emissions capability. It will be the first application of these units in LNG refrigeration service. The gas turbines will be manufactured at GE facilities in Belfort, France and tested and packaged at GE’s Massa, Italy plant for shipment to the Ras Laffan site in November 2005. ExxonMobil is planning several LNG import terminals along the Gulf Coast of the United States to accept LNG shipments from the new liquefaction project.

Oneok Inc. has entered into an agreement to purchase the 22.5% interest owned by ConocoPhillips in Gulf Coast Fractionators, which owns a fractionation facility that separates natural gas liquids (NGL) into its various components. The NGL facility, located in the Mont Belvieu area near Houston, has a capacity to fractionate 110 thousand barrels per day of raw natural gas liquid product. “Having these additional midstream assets available to Oneok will expand our footprint and provide additional stable, fee-based income from a very efficient fractionator that is located in the Mont Belvieu market, where over half the U.S. demand for natural gas liquids exists,” said John W. Gibson, Oneok president-Energy. “This is a strategic step for Oneok’s NGL business as we expand beyond the company’s current NGL operations in Kansas, located at Conway and Bushton, into the Gulf Coast market.” The transaction will cost an estimated $23 million. The company said it expects to close this transaction April 1, at which time it will become operator of the plant.

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