Qatar Petroleum/QAPCO select Technip process for cracker project

11 July 2012 16:27  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS)--State-owned Qatar Petroleum (QP) and Qatar Petrochemical Co (QAPCO) have selected Technip’s technology for their cracker project in Ras Laffan, Qatar, industry sources said on Wednesday.

Technologies for the downstream polyethylene (PE) units could be decided later this year, they said.

Nobody from QP, QAPCO or France-based Technip was immediately available to comment on the status of the project.

The project is expected to centre on a 1.4m tonne/year cracker, which will obtain feedstock from natural gas plants at the site. Downstream units are expected to produce 850,000 tonnes/year of high-density polyethylene (HDPE), 430,000 tonnes/year of linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE), 760,000 tonnes/year of polypropylene (PP) and 83,000 tonnes/year of butadiene.

The complex is scheduled for completion in 2018 and is expected to cost approximately $5.5bn (€4.5bn). QP will have an 80% equity interest in the project, with QAPCO owning the remaining 20%. QAPCO is an 80:20 joint venture between Industries Qatar and French energy giant Total.

QP is also developing a cracker project in Ras Laffan with Shell Chemicals. The QP/Shell project is expected to include a monoethylene glycol (MEG) plant with a capacity of up to 1.5m tonnes/year, a 300,000 tonne/year linear alpha olefins unit and 250,000 tonne/year oxo alcohols unit, a Shell spokeswoman said.

It could come onstream up to four years following a final decision to proceed, she added.

QP and Shell said last month that they are working on the front-end engineering and design (FEED) phase of the proposed project.

($1 = €0.82)

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