The Minister of Energy and Industry H E Dr Mohammed bin Saleh Al Sada speaks at the opening of the 10th Natural Gas Conversion Symposium in Doha yesterday.
DOHA: Encouraging intensive usage of natural gas in power generation and transportation would be an easy way to reduce urban pollution, as well as global carbon emissions, the Minister of Energy and Industry H E Dr Mohammed bin Saleh Al Sada has said.
Opening the 10th Natural Gas Conversion Symposium (NGCS), hosted by Texas A&M University at Qatar in partnership with the Natural Gas Conversion Board here yesterday, Dr Al Sada noted reducing the environmental footprint of fossil energy depends greatly on deployment of advanced technologies.
“The development of natural gas and LNG capacities is therefore, necessary to balance the world energy equation,” he said.
Qatar has come a long way from the inception of its early plans to establish a GTL hub. Through two of the world’s largest GTL plants, namely, the Pearl and Oryx GTL, Qatar Petroleum, in association with its partners, Shell and Sasol, has achieved the vision of becoming the “GTL Capital of the World” and set the benchmark for the GTL industry.
The minister said with the development of Pearl GTL, Qatar has witnessed a giant leap in size, coupled with exemplary use of technology, resulting in the largest GTL plant of its kind successfully going through its second year of production.
With the advent of stricter emission regulations and requirements for superior performing lubricants, there is an upsurge in appetite for high-quality refined products for speciality industrial and domestic applications, leading to a significant demand-driven opportunity for GTL products.
He hoped that the Doha edition of the NGCS will contribute to Qatar’s growing reputation as a regional and international hub for education and scientific works. “Qatar’s Oil and Gas Industry has supported this, through promotion and establishment of linkages between the National Research & Development programmes of Universities here in Qatar, to the need of the industry,” Dr Al Sada said.
Dr Mark H Weichold, Texas A&M at Qatar dean and CEO, said, “The discussions held at this symposium are significant, as they address research in the dynamic natural gas conversion field and promote collaboration between academia and industry which is essential to the furthering of R&D. The topics to be debated are most relevant to Qatar and do much to further its National Vision 2030 and the Qatar National Research Strategy.”
The five-day influential international event brings together scientists, researchers, and world’s leaders in synthesis gas production and utilisation to share information on the latest trends in research and technology development in these fields. The Doha conference is sponsored by Qapco, Qatar Petroleum, OryxGTL, Sasol and Shell, among other generous local industry supporters.
The symposium features topics on production and purification, synfuels, conversion, energy and commercial technical-economic studies. Industry experts will discuss information on the latest R&D technology solutions related to the conversion of fossil resources, biomass and waste to syngas, energy, synthetic natural gas, hydrogen, liquid fuels and chemicals — all hot topics of current cutting-edge research. The Peninsula
