The agreement was signed by His Excellency Abdulla Bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, Second Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy and Industry of Qatar on behalf of Qatar Petroleum, and by Jim Mulva, ConocoPhillips president and chief executive officer.

The SOI initiates detailed technical and commercial pre-FEED (front-end engineering and design) studies and establishes principles for negotiating a Heads of Agreement for an integrated reservoir-to-market GTL project.

Al-Attiyah, said: "I welcome ConocoPhillips' participation in this project and its support for establishing Ras Laffan as the GTL capital of the world. This project represents another important step towards the clear and ambitious vision of His Highness the Emir, Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, that aims to ensure the optimal utilization of the country's hydrocarbon resources by setting up oil and gas-related projects and diversifying sources of national income while creating development opportunities for the welfare and prosperity of Qatar."

Mulva stated, "ConocoPhillips is honored to have the opportunity to build on its excellent relationship with Qatar Petroleum to further develop this world-scale project as we work toward a Heads of Agreement over the next twelve months. With our technology, resources and experience in executing large-scale developments, we are well positioned to carry out global GTL projects. We are committed to meeting the goals set out in the Statement of Intent and look forward to more definitive agreements in 2004."

ConocoPhillips initiated a GTL research and development program in 1997 that has shown encouraging results in the syngas, Fischer-Tropsch and hydroprocessing technology areas. ConocoPhillips began operation of a 400 barrel-per-day GTL demonstration plant in Ponca City, Okla., in July 2003. The demonstration plant is designed and operated to assure successful technology scale-up and reliable commercial plant operation.