Qatar Petroleum to build world-scale petrochemicals complex, including Middle East's largest ethane cracker
DOHA, Qatar – Qatar Petroleum has invited a group of leading international companies, with extensive experiences in the petrochemicals industry, to submit proposals for partnering with Qatar Petroleum in the development and operation of a new world-scale Petrochemicals Complex at Ras Laffan Industrial City.
The Petrochemicals Complex will include an ethane cracker with a capacity of more than 1.6 million tons per annum (MTPA) of Ethylene, making it the largest ethane cracker in the Middle East, and one of the largest in the world. The Petrochemicals Complex will also include world-class derivative plants, which will consolidate Qatar’s position among the leading petrochemicals producers in the world markets. The engineering design of the Petrochemicals Complex should commence shortly, leading to a planned start-up in 2025.
Mr. Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, President and CEO of Qatar Petroleum,
Mr. Al-Kaabi added: “Petrochemicals represent a major pillar of our growth strategy to achieve our vision of becoming one of the best national oil companies in the world. This project will complement our efforts to implement our strategy, and will enable Qatar Petroleum to further expand its footprint in the global petrochemicals markets.”
The feedstock for the Petrochemical Complex will be ethane produced primarily from the new North Field LNG expansion project that will produce an additional 23 MTPA of LNG, as well as from existing gas projects producing ethane.
Commenting on the announcement, Wood Mackenzie's Principal Analyst, Patrick Kirby
"The global ethylene market continues to demonstrate robust growth and new supply is needed to meet future demand. Beyond existing, firm and likely ethylene capacity, we see a further 65 million tons of new capacity is needed by 2035 just to meet base demand. This equates to around 4-5 world-scale steam crackers being brought online every year. This project, if commenced, would take Qatar’s total nameplate ethylene capacity to over 4.5 million tons – a more than 50 percent increase from the current level."
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