Qatargas has achieved another significant safety milestone by completing twelve years of operations on its offshore facilities without a Lost Time Incident (LTI).
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 42 million tonnes per annum of liquefied natural gas.
Qatargas has several programmes in place that support its goal of maintaining ‘Incident & Injury Free’ operations. Risk assessments, Permit to Work system, Job Safety Analysis etc. are some of these programmes.
The Qatargas offshore facilities are located approximately 80 kilometers northeast of Qatar’s mainland. A total of 85 wells together supply approximately 7.5 billion 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&4 (joint asset of Qatargas 3 and Qatargas 4). The main complex known as “North Field Bravo” (NFB) is situated about 80 kilometers north east of Qatar’s mainland. There are seven remote wellheads platforms, and the farthest platform is wellhead-4, which is 29.6 kilometers away from the NFB complex.
NFB has 90 Qatargas direct hire employees and 36 permanent contractors working onboard for 28 days followed by a field break for 28 days. Qatari employees working on NFB follow a seven days ‘ON’ and seven days ‘OFF’ cycle. 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 vessel and two Dynamic Positioning (DP) vessels for transfer of passengers and materials. The materials include food supply, plant equipment related spares and chemicals, which are normally brought in once a week. One DP vessel is located in the field to meet ad hoc accommodation requirements of small project works on a need basis.
Helicopter operations are mainly utilized for the transfer of passengers from Doha heliport to the main offshore facility and back. Remote platforms are also accessed using helicopters during bad weather conditions and emergencies.