Qatar will use a mix feed of ethane and natural gas liquids as feedstock for two upcoming petrochemical projects, a company source said Monday.
The first project involves Qatar Petroleum and Royal Dutch Shell. The two companies signed a deal in December 2011 to develop a petrochemicals plant in the Gulf country for an estimated cost of $6.4 billion. The project includes a world-scale steam cracker to be built at Qatar's Ras Laffan industrial city and a 1.5 million mt/year monoethylene glycol plant. The project will also produce 300,000 mt/year of linear alpha olefins. QP holds a 80% stake in the project and Shell 20%.
The other project involves Qatari oil major Qapco and QP. The two companies signed an agreement in February 2012 for the development of another $5.5 billion petrochemicals complex to produce 1.4 million mt/year of ethylene and other products. The new plant, which is scheduled for completion in 2018, will be located at the Ras Laffan industrial hub. QP has an 80% equity interest in the project, with Qapco holding the remaining 20%. The plant will also produce 850,000 mt/year of high density polyethylene, 430,000 mt/year of linear low-density polyethylene, 760,000 mt/year of polypropylene and 83,000 mt/year of butadiene.
"Because QP is the apex Qatari body to decide on gas allocations, we have no problem in getting gas allocated for the project. The NGLs will come from the second phase of Ras Laffan refinery," the source said.
The $1.5 billion Laffan Refinery 2 (LR2) Project will consist of a 146,000 b/d processing capacity condensate refinery to be built at Ras Laffan Industrial City, Qatar, adjacent to existing Laffan Refinery (LR1), which has the same processing capacity.
The LR2 refinery is currently being constructed and when fully operational in the third quarter of 2016, it will have production capacity of 60,000 b/d of naphtha, 53,000 b/d of jet fuel, 24,000 b/d of gasoil and 9,000 b/d of LPG. Qatargas, a joint venture between state-owned QP and a number of international companies, is to operate the new refinery.
