RasGas Co. Limited recently held an appreciation ceremony at the Intercontinental Hotel in Doha, Qatar to celebrate reaching the production capacity of the Helium Recovery Unit to the design rates of 9.2 tonnes per day. Operations Group Manager Hamad M. Al Muhannadi, Trains 1/2/Helium Recovery Unit Asset Manager Mohamed H. Shikari and the task force team consisting of personnel from RasGas, Air Liquide and Axima Company were present at the ceremony.

On this special gathering, Al Muhannadi recognized the team's excellent work and congratulated them for achieving this important milestone for RasGas; he also said, "In our continuous strive for excellence; this achievement demonstrates excellent team work between our Asset Operations, Maintenance and Technical Engineering departments along with engineers from Air Liquide and Axima Company."

Moreover Shikari commented, "The task force team was technically challenged to study and resolve teething issues which were encountered during the commissioning of the plant. Reaching this milestone reinforces RasGas commitment to meet customer demand." He also stated that "[t]he team continues to engage in resolving issues on improving reliability of crude helium supply from LNG plants as well as overcoming limitations faced during the loading of hot containers."

The Helium Project is a joint venture owned by RasGas (I), RasGas (II) and Qatargas, and operated by RasGas Company Limited (RasGas).

Finally, the achievement of reaching design production capacity of 9.2 tonnes per day of liquid helium, equivalent to 660 million standard cubic feet per year, is considered an exceptional milestone as RasGas now produces approximately 10% of the world's total helium production.