Entrant: Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC)
Project owner: Qatar Petroleum
Project contractor: CCC/Teyseer Contracting Company
Engineering consultant: Halcrow

Description: Ras Laffan, located 80 kilometres north of Doha, is the world’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporting facility. Once its current expansion phase is complete, the facility is expected to become the largest man-made harbour in the world. The expansion covers an area of 51 square kilometres and substantially increases the capacity for LNG and liquid product exports.

The existing port had certain limitations such as wind and current constraints, geological challenges, and access channel width. The beginning of the expansion phase saw the deployment of the biggest dredging operation ever undertaken anywhere in the world, where 20 million cubic metres of limestone was dredged, 25 million cubic metres of sand was reclaimed and 21 kilometres of breakwater was built.

Work on the project included building five new LNG berths, four small tanker berths, navy/coastguard and tug berths, container export berths, and onshore infrastructure, including electrical power distribution. The Ras Laffan port project is one of the largest maritime engineering schemes in the world and its immense size can best be viewed from outer space.