ExxonMobil Research Qatar (EMRQ) is to increase its commitment to the Qatar Science and Technology Park (QSTP) by investing over QR218m in its operations through 2014. This was stated by Stephen M Greenlee, President of both ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company and ExxonMobil Research Qatar here on Thursday, who announced that EMRQ is launching two additional research programmes. The first programme is EMRQ’s Water Reuse research programme, which will investigate water treating technology and will initially focus on the identification and selection of native plant life that can naturally clean water produced from oil and gas wells. The second research programme, the Qatar Center for Coastal Research, will study Qatari coastal geology to help improve understanding of the continuity and quality of ancient carbonate reservoir rocks found in Middle Eastern oil and gas fields. “ExxonMobil is proud of its strategic partnership with the State of Qatar,” said Greenlee. “We are also proud to be working with Qatar Foundation and be an anchor tenant at QSTP and to work together to build a world class centre of science and education.” He added that ExxonMobil shares the QSTP objectives to advance science and technology through research and development and looks forward to see QSTP realise its potential to becoming a world class R&D centre. Greenlee also said that the EMRQ presented to the Ministry of Environment a significant environmental research report on coastal water quality in Ras Laffan Industrial City (RLIC). It also conducted environmental studies of Qatari corrals and sea grass and continues active involvement in high school and college education communities. “We will continue to share our research findings with our research and joint venture partners, with the local government agencies for the benefit of the State of Qatar,” he said. ExxonMobil established the EMRQ at QSTP to conduct research that could be applied to many of Qatar’s major projects as the country continues to develop and operate the world’s largest integrated gas processing and liquefaction facilities. “ExxonMobil’s growing investment at the Qatar Science & Technology Park will continue to help build the scientific foundation of Qatar’s efforts to solve complex energy and environmental challenges,” said Greenlee. Dr Tidu Maini, Executive Chairman of QSTP and Qatar Foundation’s science and technology advisor, noted that QSTP was established to foster a strong research culture that progresses scientific and technological advancement in Qatar. Dr James Rigby, Research Director at EMRQ said: “Our research endeavours complement the Qatar National Vision 2030 and its four pillars of human, social, economic and environmental development. Our expansion gives us an opportunity to add more local employees in addition to the graduates hired recently from Qatar University and Texas A&M-Qatar. We will continue to recruit qualified personnel to work in our research centre.” http://thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=Local_News&subsection=Qatar+News&month=April2010&file=Local_News2010041114016.xml

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