Doha, Friday 5th October 2001
 
Qatar is one step closer towards setting up a world-class petrochemical project at the Ras Laffan Industrial City with Qatar Petroleum signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Chevron Phillips Chemical Company, Chevron Phillips International Qatar Holdings, Atofina SA, and Qatar Petrochemical Company (Qapco) on 4th October.
 
HE Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, Minister of Energy and Industry, was present during the MoU signing ceremony in France on Thursday. Qatar Petroleum and Chevron Phillips are already in a joint venture agreement for a combined ethylene and polyethylene projects in Qatar. Thursday's MoU brings in Atofina SA, an affiliate of the ToatalFinaElf, and Qapco, a Qatar Petroleum affiliate equity participants in the ethane cracker projects, a QP spokesman said. The ethane cracker project will have an initial capacity of 1million metric tonnes a year in the later stages.

"After expansion, the cracker unit will be largest of its kind in the world" he said. The ethane feedstock for the project will be sourced from Qatar's giant North Field, the world's largest non-associated gas field. The first phase of the facility is expected to commence production in the second half of 2006.

The polyethylene plant will utilize Chevron Phillip's proprietary loop process technology. Chevron Phillips and Atofina have an active presence in Qatar's petrochemical industry. "The new project considerably enhances their participation in the development of Qatar's hydrocarbon resources" Qatar Petroleum said. The new petrochemical complex will be the second venture QP and Chevron Phillips undertake in Qatar.

Qatar Chemical Company (Q-Chem) is a joint venture between the two. It is currently constructing a plant capable of producing 500,000 MT annually and a polyethylene plant of 462,000 tonnes a year capacity in Mesaieed. Also part of the project is a hexane-1 plant of an annual capacity of 47,000 tonnes. The plant is on schedule for a third quarter 2002 start-up, QP sources said. On Wednesday, Al-Attiyah met Christopher D'Margavie, Vice-President of TotalFinaElf, and discussed with him the prospects of joint projects in oil and gas projects. Latter in the day, the minister held talks with Pierre Gadonneix, Chairman of Gaz de France.

The talks covered topics relating to the liquefied natural gas industry and the prospects of supplying gas to the French company.

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© Press Release 2005