At the opening session of the CWC 11th Annual World LNG Summit in Barcelona, Spain, delegates’ attention was focused on RasGas Company Limited (RasGas) when Khalid Sultan Al Kuwari, its Marketing Executive, gave a keynote address titled, “The future is upon us”.
Al Kuwari’s message was an upbeat one. “Demand growth is predicted across all regions.” he said. “Although the factors behind this growth differ significantly from market to market, we do know that LNG will play an increasingly crucial role in meeting energy demand, with forecast LNG demand growth of around 30 per cent in the next five years”.
After analysing the outlook for LNG in different regional markets, Al Kuwari made a persuasive case on behalf of RasGas for the need for greater advocacy for LNG, and for more concerted promotion of its potential role in meeting energy demand.
“Natural gas has proved itself an efficient, environmentally friendly and secure fuel,” he observed. “It is a proven way to fuel economic growth, it is able to assist the long-term reduction in carbon emissions and it will still be providing clean, secure energy long into the future”.
Central to the LNG industry’s long-term vision, Al Kuwari continued, will be RasGas and Qatar. Now that RasGas’ two LNG mega-trains, Train 6 and Train 7, are fully operational, the Company has a total production capacity of around 37 million tonnes per annum (Mta), contributing to Qatar’s overall capacity of 77 Mta. Further, RasGas has created strong connections with LNG importers in new markets such as South America, which are competing for LNG supplies with established players in more mature markets. RasGas is fully equipped to meet growing world demand.
Al Kuwari concluded: “Gas demand is rising and is set to rise even faster, driven by an abundance of new players who have committed to LNG as their fuel of choice. RasGas will continue to deliver on its commitments to provide them with the clean, secure energy they need”.
This year’s conference takes place from 30 November to 2 December in Barcelona and welcomes an unprecedented number of senior industry professionals from around the world. As the world’s economies recover from the downturn, governments, contractors, customers and LNG producers themselves are keen to discuss the place of LNG in the global energy mix, now and in the longer term. RasGas’ expertise and achievements over the past decade place it at the heart of the debate.
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Source: RasGas, November 30, 2010