QatarEnergy has announced the final investment decision (FID) with Chevron Phillips Chemical Company (CPChem) to build the Ras Laffan Petrochemicals complex , a $6 billion integrated olefins and polyethylene facility at Ras Laffan Industrial City.

The announcement was made in Doha in a special ceremony during which Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, the Minister of State for Energy Affairs, the President and CEO of QatarEnergy, and Bruce Chinn, the President and CEO of Chevron Phillips Chemical, signed the agreement for a joint venture company to implement the project, in which QatarEnergy will own a 70% equity share, and CPChem will own a 30% share.

The signing ceremony was attended by Mark Lashier, the President and CEO of Phillips 66, and senior executives from QatarEnergy and CPChem.

QatarEnergy also announced the award of the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract for the ethylene plant 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.

Separately, Maire Tecnimont said it had started work on an EPC contract worth $1.3 billion awarded by a joint venture between QatarEnergy and Chevron Phillips Chemical. The contract, announced in December, relates to the construction of a polyethylene (PE) plant as part of a new polymers complex being built in Ras Laffan Industrial City. The completion is expected by 2026.

In remarks at the signing ceremony, Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi said: “This marks QatarEnergy’s largest investment ever in Qatar’s petrochemicals sector and the first direct investment in 12 years. It will double our ethylene production capacity, and increase our local polymer production from 2.6 to more than 4 million tons per annum, and place the utmost emphasis on sustainable growth and the environment.”

“There is no doubt that this cornerstone investment in Ras Laffan Industrial City marks an important milestone in QatarEnergy’s downstream expansion strategy. It will not only facilitate further expansion in the downstream and petrochemical sectors in Qatar, but will also reinforce our integrated position as a major global player in the upstream, LNG, and downstream sectors,” he added.

“This will be further enhanced once the new world-scale petrochemical project in Orange, Texas, in the US comes online in partnership with Chevron Phillips Chemical, executed by our joint venture Golden Triangle Polymers Company.”

Al-Kaabi concluded his remarks by saying: “We are delighted to enter into this exciting new venture with Chevron Phillips Chemical – a leading and highly respected international petrochemicals company, and a long-term partner with whom we have achieved many successes together building and operating plants safely and efficiently for more than 20 years.

“Together, our large and diverse portfolio will not just help meet the world’s growing needs for advanced plastics and petrochemicals, but will also enable balanced growth and facilitate human development in a responsible and sustainable manner.”

This final investment decision comes less than two months after QatarEnergy and Chevron Phillips Chemical took the Final Investment Decision to execute the $8.5 billion Golden Triangle Polymers Plant on the US Gulf Coast in Texas.  – TradeArabia News Service