Qapco shuts Mesaieed ethane cracker on technical woes

27 April 2009 08:25  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--Qatar Petrochemical Co (Qapco) has shut its 720,000 tonne/year ethane cracker in Mesaieed due to technical issues, a market source said on Monday.

“The cracker was shut yesterday and the company is targeting to restart it before the end of this week,” the source said.

The unplanned outage is expected to affect Qapco’s ethylene exports.

The company usually exports around three cargoes of 4,000-5,000 tonnes each of ethylene every month but it is likely to ship out only 1-2 cargoes for May loading, he said.

Separately, Qapco’s new 1.3m tonne/year ethane cracker at the same site is still expected to come on stream in the early part of the fourth quarter, he added.

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By: Peh Soo Hwee
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