QatarEnergy has signed an agreement with US-based Chevron Phillips Chemical Company to establish Ras Laffan Petrochemicals Complex at an investment of $6 billion, Qatar News Agency (QNA) said in a tweet.  

The two companies will set up a joint venture, which will be 70 percent owned by QatarEnergy and 30 percent by Chevron Phillips, QNA tweeted on Sunday.

News agency AFP said in a separate report on Sunday that The Ras Laffan Petrochemicals Complex, which will produce 2.1 million tonnes of ethylene a year along with 1.7 million tonnes of polyethylene derivatives, will come on stream in 2026.

In a press statement issued later in the day, QatarEnergy said the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract for the ethylene plant was awarded to SCJV, a joint venture company between Samsung Engineering Company  of South Korea and CTCI of Taiwan. The EPC contract for the polyethylene plant was awarded to Maire Tecnimont of Italy, while Emerson of the USA was awarded the main automation contract.

The complex would consist of an ethane cracker with a capacity of 2.1 million tonnes of ethylene per annum, making it the largest in the Middle East and one of the largest in the world. It also includes two polyethylene trains with a combined output of 1.7 million tonnes per annum of High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) polymer products, raising Qatar’s overall petrochemical production capacity to almost 14 million tonnes per annum.

Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, the Minister of State for Energy Affairs said the new project will double Qatar's ethylene production capacity, and increase local polymer production from 2.6 to more than 4 million tonnes per annum./

In November 2022, Chevron Phillips Chemical and QatarEnergy reached a Final Investment Decision (FID) to build an $8.5 billion polymers facility in Orange, Texas. The facility is expected to be operational in 2026.

(Writing by P Deol; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)