DOHA: Saad Sherida Al Kaabi (pictured), President & CEO of Qatar Petroleum (QP) said yesterday that QP will be conducting feasibility studies to assess utilising the available ethane feedstock after the decision not to go ahead with the Al Karaana Petrochemicals Project.
The studies will be carried out by QP in cooperation with Qatar Petrochemical Company (Qapco), Qatar Chemical Company (Q-Chem) and RasLaffan Olefins Company (RLOC), with the aim to expand and further develop the petrochemical plants under Industries Qatar (IQ) and Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding Company (MPHC).
This significant step was driven by QP’s efforts to achieve the best utilisation of Qatar’s natural resources, particularly in the petrochemical sector and in a manner that supports local industries, and maximizes its contribution to the national economy.
Based on the results of the studies, the best option will be selected in a manner that ensures that maximum economic benefits to the State and to all shareholders in these companies in the long term.
Al Kaabi stressed that this approach will also maximise the benefit from available synergies by utilizing the existing facilities and infrastructure in this sector, and will significantly reduce capital and operational costs.
The Peninsula
Doha: Qatar Petroleum (QP) and Shell said they had decided not to proceed with their $6.4bn Al Karaana petrochemical project, the region’s second big energy project to be shelved since oil prices began to plunge late last year.
Prices quoted by contractors to build the huge complex showed the project was “commercially unfeasible, particularly in the current economic climate prevailing in the energy industry”, the two companies said in a joint statement yesterday.
State-owned Qatar Petroleum and Shell had agreed on the project in December 2011; they were to build a petrochemical complex in the Ras Laffan Industrial City, with the Qatari company owning 80 percent and Shell 20 percent.
The Al Karaana project had appeared to face delays even before oil prices started to tumble. Requests for banks to help finance it were due to be sent out by the end of the first quarter last year, but this did not happen.
That suggests the oil price tumble may be prompting companies formally to shelve projects that were in any case looking uncertain because of changes in the industry and shifting demand projections.
Early this month, industry sources said that Saudi Arabia’s state oil giant Saudi Aramco had suspended plans to build a $2bn clean fuels plant at its largest oil refinery in Ras Tanura.
Many other multi-billion dollar projects in the region are still going ahead, however, including the Sadara joint venture petrochemical complex of Aramco and Dow Chemical, which has an estimated value of around $20bn.
Existing partnerships between Qatar Petroleum and Shell include Pearl GTL, the world’s largest integrated gas-to-liquids plant, located at Ras Laffan in the Gulf state.
Reuters
