Ras Laffan Industrial City is Qatar's main site for production of liquefied natural gas and gas-to-liquid.

[citation needed] The earliest-known English text to describe Ras Laffan was in the 1890 book The Persian Gulf Pilot, published by the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office.

[2] In an early 1904 transcript of the Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and Central Arabia by John G. Lorimer, it is mentioned that a pearling bank known as Umm Al Shebh is found off the coast of Ras Laffan, although Lorimer provides no description of Ras Laffan itself.

[4] The purpose of its founding was to host petrochemical facilities for the natural gas obtained from North Field.

[5] In March 2011, the city signed a memorandum of understanding with the Port of Rotterdam on the occasion of an official visit by Queen Beatrix to Qatar.

[11] Common vegetation found in Ras Laffan includes arfaj (Rhanterium epapposum),[12] rak (Salvadora persica),[13] desert thumbs (Cynomorium coccineum),[14] ndeewa (Cressa cretica),[15] rukbah (Cyperus jeminicus) near the coast,[16] incense grass (Cymbopogon commutatus) in sandy depressions,[17] kebaisha (Erodium glaucophyllum),[18] reeds (Phragmites australis) in wet areas,[19] ja'ad (Teucrium polium),[20] nafayj (Pulicaria gnaphalodes),[21] and stoneseed (Echiochilon jugatum).

It was established as a response to calls for improved environmental management in the area surrounding the city resulting from petrochemical processing.

This project came to fruition with the launch of the facility's inaugural phase in 2003 with an hourly production capacity of 308,000 cubic meters of seawater.

By 2010, the two remaining phases were completed, increasing the hourly production capacity to 937,000 cubic meters of seawater.

Mainly, companies based in this area provide replacement and repair of damaged electrical and petrochemical-related equipment.