Doha, Qatar – QatarEnergy has signed the Final Investment Decision (FID) with Chevron Phillips Chemical to build the Ras Laffan Petrochemicals complex, a $6 billion integrated olefins and polyethylene facility at Ras Laffan Industrial City.
The agreement was signed between the Qatari Minister of State for Energy Affairs, President and CEO of QatarEnergy Eng. Saad bin Sherida Al Kaabi and President and CEO of Chevron Phillips Chemical (CPChem) Bruce Chinn.
The Ras Laffan Petrochemicals complex is expected to begin production of olefins and polyethylene in 2026. According to the FID, both firms will establish a joint venture company, in which QatarEnergy will own a 70 percent equity share, and CPChem will own a 30 percent.
The Ras Laffan Petrochemicals complex consists of an ethane cracker with a capacity of 2.1 million tons 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 tons per annum of High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) polymer products, raising Qatar’s overall petrochemical production capacity to almost 14 million tons per annum.
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 Ltd. 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.
In remarks at the signing ceremony, Minister Saad bin Sherida Al Kaabi said that QatarEnergy announced the FID to build the Ras Laffan Petrochemicals project, a $6 billion integrated olefins and polyethylene complex at Ras Laffan Industrial City, in partnership with Chevron Phillips Chemical Company.
“This marks QatarEnergy’s largest investment ever in Qatar’s petrochemicals sector and the first direct investment in 12 years,” Al Kaabi said. “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.
Bruce Chinn said that this investment would help meet the global demand for polyethylene products. He added that the building of the project would be carried out using modern energy-saving technology while using ethane as a raw material, which is expected, in addition to other measures, to lead to decreasing greenhouse gas emissions compared to similar global facilities.
This FID comes less than two months after QatarEnergy and CPChem took the FID to execute the $8.5 billion Golden Triangle Polymers Plant on the US Gulf Coast in Texas. In addition, QatarEnergy and CPChem operate other joint ventures in the State of Qatar.
QatarEnergy is an integrated energy company and a world leader in Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG).
Based in Texas, USA, Chevron Phillips Chemical is one of the world’s top producers of olefins and polyolefins. Chevron Phillips Chemical and its affiliates own nearly $18 billion in assets, including 31 manufacturing and research facilities in six countries.