Doha - The economic policy of Qatar aims at diversification of national income through expansion of industrial and service sectors and utilization of its natural resources. It aims also to provide private sector the opportunity to play more active role in the economic development, H. e the deputy premier and minister of energy and industry Abdullah bin Hamad al Attiyah stressed.
Addressing the signing ceremony for several contracts related to Qatar Petrochemical Complex project (QPCC) in Mesaieed industrial city., h.e. al Attiyah expected that the event will signal an important 'mile stone' in the road of implementing this important project for Qatar, and will support our strategic plans for expanding the base of our petrochemical products.
"We are proud that we have identified and developed this mega- project through our own internal capabilities, " he said.
he noted that the project at the same time it embodies a real multinational cooperation to implement it, as Qatar Holding is signing today the following contract: FEED and PMCM Foster Wheeler, UK, Process Technologies from Lummus (4 technologies) - USA, Basel (polypropylene technology - Italy).
Hence, this project falls very well within those policies and plans, as it is the first petrochemical complex in Qatar which will use primarily the available liquid feedstock from Mesaieed and Ras Laffan operating and planned projects, he noted.
The complex will produce over 1.7 million tons per year of Propylene (180 Kt/y(, Polypropylene(700 kt/y), Styrene (380 kt/y), Polystyrene (220 kt/y) and Aromatics (Xylenes) over250 kt/y.
Furthermore, Qatar Holding is planning to expand the bases of the new polymers and intermediate petrochemical products in the country, through implementing subsequent viable projects, which should provide further investment opportunities for the Qatari private sector, H.E Al Attiyah stressed.
Today we are also signing the Heads of Agreement HoA' with Honam Petrochemical Corporation of the Republic of South Korea, to jointly implement this project. It is the next step of the MOU which was signed on Dec. 29th, 2005, between the two parties, and an advanced stage to signing the Joint Venture Agreement (JVA). Qatar Holding will have 70 per cent of the shares and Honam Petrochemical Corporation will have 30 per cent of shares. The project is planned to be in production by the fall of year 2011, he noted .
It has been recognized that Qatar enjoys a unique geographical location which is close to fast growing and developing markets of India, South East Asia and Far East in addition to the Middle East and Europe. With well developed global communication networks and modern infrastructure, international investment in Qatar has witnessed indeed a significant upward surge. Surely this project will also benefit from those incentives and factors, he noted.
© IRNA 2007
