The earliest-known English text to describe Ras Laffan was in the 1890 book The Persian Gulf Pilot, published by the Britain Hydrographic Dept. It recounts only geographic features, inferring that the area was not settled at the time. In an early 1904 transcript of the Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and Central Arabia by John G. Lorimer, it is mentioned that a pearling bank known as Umm Al Shebh is found off the coast of Ras Laffan, although Lorimer provides no description of Ras Laffan itself. As an industrial city, Ras Laffan was commissioned in 1996. The purpose of its founding was to host petrochemical facilities for the natural gas obtained North Field. The North Field, found in 1971, is the world's biggest natural gas field, occupying an offshore area of roughly 6,000 square km; more than half the size of the State of Qatar. North Field contains over 900 trillion tcsf of recoverable gas. Ras Laffan's commission in 1996 marks the completion date for the city's first liquefied natural gas plant to convert the natural gas obtained from North Field into LNG. At first, it was estimated that only 106 square km would be needed for industrial operations. However, in 2004, this figure was more than drastically increased, to 296 square km. In March 2011, the city signed a memorandum of understanding with the Port of Rotterdam on the occasion of an official visit by Queen Beatrix to Qatar. It was announced in May 2019 by Qatargas that the company's Ras Laffan terminal received its 10,00th non-LNG related shipment.
Geography & environment
Ras Laffan is located at a very low elevation and has sandy soils. It is north of the capital Doha and southeast of Ras Rakan. There is a reef off the coast. Together with Fuwayrit, Ras Laffan accommodates approximately 30% of all sea turtle nests in Qatar. Roughly 17 hectares of mangroves are found off the coast of Ras Laffan. In a 2010 survey of Ras Laffan's coastal waters conducted by the Qatar Statistics Authority, it was found that its maximum depth was and minimum depth was. Furthermore, the waters had an average pH of 8.05, a salinity of 46.94 psu, an average temperature of 24.6°C and 6.86 mg/L of dissolved oxygen. Laffan Environmental Society is an environmental NGO formed as a joint partnership between Qatar Petroleum Industrial Cities and several other large companies operating in Ras Laffan. It was established as a response to calls for improved environmental management in the area surrounding the city resulting from petrochemical processing.
Companies
Industrial infrastructure
Currently, Ras Laffan accommodates three power generation and water desalination plants, abbreviated as Ras Laffan A, B, and C. In 2014, Kahramaa announced a planned project which would see the desalination capacity of the plants increase from 35 million gallons of water per day to 65 million gallons per day. The project is set to begin in 2017. In 1999, a plan was conceived of by Qatar Petroleum to construct a facility which would meet the water cooling requirements of Ras Laffan's petrochemical industries. This project came to fruition with the launch of the facility's inaugural phase in 2003 with an hourly production capacity of 308,000 cubic meters of seawater. By 2010, the two remaining phases were completed, increasing the hourly production capacity to 937,000 cubic meters of seawater. In 2017, Qatargas and ExxonMobil launched the $10.4 billion Barzan Gas Project as a joint venture.
Ras Laffan Emergency & Safety College
Ras Laffan Emergency & Safety College is a training center for emergency professionals created to address the safety needs of the city's industrial companies.
Ras Laffan Support Services Area
Companies providing support services to the petrochemicals in Ras Laffan have been based in the specially-designated Ras Laffan Support Services Area since its inauguration in March 2013. The area's facilities consist of three large-scale workshops, a yard, and an administration building occupying an area of 46,600 square meters. Mainly, companies based in this area provide replacement and repair of damaged electrical and petrochemical-related equipment.
Port of Ras Laffan
The Port of Ras Laffan is the world's biggest petrochemicals export port, taking up a grand total of 56 square km. The first time an LNG carrier docked in the port was in 1996. In 2015, the port had the capacity to dock 200 tankers annually.
The city is served by Ras Laffan Hospital, which is spread over 200,000 square meters and features four levels, including an underground level. The bed capacity is 118, with future plans to expand this with the addition of 100 beds. A mosque with a 400-worshiper capacity is also in the works. It has a 30-bed emergency building distributed over 6,000 square meters of the hospital. Hamad Medical Corporation is responsible for overseeing the hospital's financing. One health clinic is in the city, and like the hospital, it too is financed by HMC.
Transport
Ras Laffan is connected with Al Khor City through Al Huwailah Link Road. In November 2014, the 16-km road was improved by increasing it from one lane to four lanes.
