OREANDA-NEWS. April 23, 2013. Qatar Petroleum (QP), along with its Industrial Cities Directorate, RasGas, Qatargas and Nakilat, is taking part in the 17th International Conference & Exhibition on Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG 17), which formally opened at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas.

LNG 17 is considered as the premier event for the LNG industry worldwide and is the only global event that brings together companies representing the entire LNG value chain. The four-day event is under the auspices of the International Gas Union (IGU), the Gas Technology Institute (GTI) and the International Institute of Refrigeration (IIR), with the American Gas Association (AGA) serving as the host association this year.

QP is one of the major companies exhibiting at LNG 17, and the QP stand prominently features the operations of the Industrial Cities Directorate as well as RasGas and Qatargas, which are the event’s platinum and diamond sponsors, respectively. The stand highlights Qatar’s current standing as the world’s No. 1 exporter of LNG to markets around the world, with its 77 million tonnes per annum of LNG production capacity. It also showcases Nakilat’s operations whose 54 LNG vessels is the largest LNG shipping fleet in the whole world.

The delegation from Qatar is headed by Mr. Hamad Rashid Al Mohannadi, Vice-Chairman of QP and Chief Executive Officer of RasGas Company Limited. Mr. Al-Mohannadi delivered a keynote address at the event’s Global Strategy Forum, which followed the opening ceremony and presented an overview of the future of the LNG industry as viewed by the industry’s key stakeholders.

Many members of the Qatari delegation are also attending the LNG 17 conference, with top officials from Qatargas and RasGas also scheduled to deliver presentations during the conference sessions. The event, which has attracted the participation of over 5,000 industry professionals from over 80 countries, also have poster sessions and six spotlight sessions featuring plenary speakers.

First launched in 1968, the International Conference & Exhibition on Liquefied Natural Gas is organized every three years and it was last held in Doha, Qatar, in 2004. The 18th edition of the event will be held in Perth, Australia, in April 2016.