Business Life

Qatar Airways aircraft this evening completed the world's first commercial passenger flight powered by a fuel made from natural gas.

The historic journey from London Gatwick to Doha took over six hours and was operated with an Airbus A340-600 aircraft using Rolls-Royce Trent 556 engines.

Shell developed and produced the 50-50 blend of synthetic Gas to Liquids (GTL) kerosene and conventional oil-based kerosene fuel. The State of Qatar is set to become the world's leading producer of GTL kerosene when it is put into commercial production from 2012.

The fuel, as an alternative to...

Capping a 33-year career with Saudi Aramco, executives joined recently to bid farewell to outgoing executive director of Industrial Services Amer A. Al-Sulaim.

The Industrial Services organization is composed of Saudi Aramco’s Transportation, Marine, Aviation, Roads and Heavy Equipment, and Mechanical Shops Services departments, and Al-Sulaim was challenged with finding ways to significantly increase Saudization while maintaining outstanding services.

Abdulrahman F. Al-Wuhaib, senior vice president of Operations Services, spoke at the luncheon held in Al-Sulaim’s honor and detailed...

KazMunaiGas (KMG), the national oil company of Kazakhstan today announced its intention to establish a major presence at Caspian Energy Hub (CEH), the fourth in a series of energy cities conceived by leading GCC Islamic investment bank Gulf Finance House.  In a move that underlines the heavy momentum building on the CEH initiative, KMG will also be calling on all foreign energy companies to follow their lead as Kazakhstan bids to double domestic oil production and triple gas production by 2015.
KMG is one of the largest oil producing companies in Kazakhstan and is currently developing 46...

Qatargas unveiled today an interactive exhibition which is open to the public and will explain the process by which liquefied natural gas (LNG) is created. Located on the Corniche, the exhibition will welcome visitors in Doha through April 9th. Under the patronage of H.E. Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah, Deputy Premier and Minister for Energy and Industry, Faisal Al Suwaidi, Chief Executive Officer of Qatargas Operating Company Limited, officially opened the exhibition on Doha’s Corniche.

“I am delighted to open this exhibition and start the countdown to the inauguration of Qatargas 2”...

The shifting sands of the Arabian Peninsula hide more than their fair share of secrets. Once, flourishing lakes teeming with life lie buried beneath scorching dunes. Even entire cities have been swallowed by the gaping maw of the desert. “Searching for and finding one of them is one of the great adventures of a lifetime,” said John Faulhaber, at a recent meeting of the Arabian Natural History Association “Just reading about it is exciting.”
One such city was Ubar, “the Atlantis of the Sands.” Ubar flourished from about 2800 BCE to about 300 CE as a remote desert outpost where...

Saudi Aramco industrial facilities often take a beating. Fouling and scaling reduce heat transfer in exchanger tubes and cause corrosion in pipes. That can lead to a loss of production as unplanned shutdowns become necessary to fix leaking equipment. Standard methods of chemical treatment reduce fouling and corrosion, but their effects can be limited. So Riyadh Refinery is pioneering a new technology by the Merus Company.

The technology resolves cooling-water issues and provides a state-of-the-art technique to eliminate fouling and to clean fouled equipment. That, in turn, saves the time...