Doha: Qatar Petroleum's (QP) future investments in the petrochemical and chemical industry now under discussion exceed $5bn, H E Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah, Second Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy and Industry said yesterday.
Speaking at the 2nd Investor Meet on Petrochemical Industry organised by the Doha-based Gulf Organisation for Industrial Consulting (Goic), Al Attiyah said the target is to develop a full-fledged petrochemical and chemical industry in Qatar, fully integrating the upstream production of basic intermediates with the transformation and end-products segments of the industry.
As many as 43 representatives of Qatari, GCC and foreign petrochemical companies are taking part in the meeting.
QP recently invested over $2bn in projects, including a world-scale cracker plant in Ras Laffan and derivative units in Mesaieed with the Q-Chem II and Qatofin projects.
The production of ammonia in Qatar now reaches 2 million tonnes per annum, while the urea production has reached 2.8 million tonnes per annum. Besides, the polyethylene production now stands at over 1 million tonnes per annum and is expected to attain the 2 million tonnes per annum mark soon.
Al Attiyah called on the private sector to play an active role in the petrochemical field, especially in areas like plastics compounding and transformation or fine chemicals projects, where the private sector may be particularly adapted to turn around smaller projects directly oriented towards particular niche markets.
QP has been instructed to play a more active role in the expansion of the downstream industry that uses feedstocks from QP's joint ventures and from its fully owned projects.
"QP will be monitoring these initiatives, without necessarily taking always a participative interest in them.", said Al Attiyah, adding that QP will playa role of promoter for these projects and will help the private sector implement them.
"This will ensure that the feedstocks are made available to the downstream industry, but at the same time, will ensure also these investments are always done in a professional way and according to international standards".
Dr Ahmed Khalil Al-Mutawa, Secretary General of Goic said at the opening session that five selected viable projects with investment entitlement ranging between $10m to $300m are to be introduced during the two-day meeting
Al Mutawa pointed out that the petrochemicals industry represents a major element of the diversification process in the GCC. "Most of the new projects are characterised by their high capital content and requirements, their export- oriented growth patterns and the global scale of their implantations", he said.
Petrochemicals production in the GCC has increased from 18 million tons in 1997 to more than 38 million tons in 2004, and the number of plants has escalated to 34.
GCC petrochemicals production is forecasted to reach 40 million metric tonnes per annum by end of 2005. Investments outlays have risen from $445m in the 80s to $ 197bn in 2000.
© The Peninsula 2005
