A new USD 5.5 bn petrochemicals complex to be jointly developed by Qatar Petroleum and Qatar Petrochemical Co (Qapco, Mesaieed / Qatar; www.qapco.com) at Ras Laffan will start up in 2018 and target markets in Latin America, Asia and Africa. The site’s steam cracker will have capacity to produce 1.4m t/y of ethylene, along with 850,000 t/y of HDPE, 430,000 t/y of LLDPE, 760,000 t/y of PP and 83,000 t/y of butadiene.

Speaking at a signing ceremony to seal the plans, energy minister Mohammed Al-Sada said the latest mammoth project represents “yet another major step towards sustainable development of Qatar’s vast hydrocarbon resources” and will make a “valuable contribution” to the country’s future GDP growth. Qapco is an 80:20 joint venture between the state-owned Industries Qatar and French oil and petrochemicals group Total (Paris; www.total.com).

In December 2011, the Qatar energy ministry signed an agreement with Shell (London / UK; www.shell.com) for a USD 6.4 bn petrochemical complex that would include a 1.5m t/y mono-ethylene glycol facility and a plant to produce 300,000 t/y of linear alpha olefins. Qatar Petroleum would be the majority partner in the project, with a stakeholding of 80%. Altogether, Qatar has budgeted USD 25 bn to widening its annual petrochemicals output from 9.2m t/y in 2010 to 23m t/y by 2020.