Mitsui & Co., Ltd. has announced that the Laffan Refinery Co. Ltd., in which Mitsui and Mitsui Europe Plc hold a 4.5% share through their co-owned subsidiary MIT Laffan Refinery Ltd., has commenced production from its Laffan Refinery on 23 September 2009.

Laffan Refinery is the first condensate refinery in Qatar and it has a total processing capacity of 146,000 bpd. The refinery's production capacity will be 61,000 bpd of naphtha, 52,000 bpd of kerojet, 24,000 bpd of gasoil and 9,000 bpd of LPG.

Laffan Refinery was built in line with the national strategy of Qatar aiming to add value to the condensate produced at Qatar North Field, which is the largest single non associated natural gas field in the world. The plant foundation stone was laid in April 2006, and it has commenced production this time.

And this refinery has been designed as an environmental-friendly facility and built in line with stringent environment standards. Especially, a waste water treatment system enables reuse of treated water in various operation of the refinery.

Mitsui has participated in the Qatargas 1 project, the first LNG project in Qatar, as well as the Qatargas 3 project, which is the LNG export project mainly for the market of the United States, and has been deeply involved in the promotion of the resource energy business of this country. Mitsui hopes that with the start of this refining business our relations with the country of Qatar will be stronger and contribute to the further development of the economy including energy field there.