Qatar Petroleum (QP) and Shell announced on 28 February the award of a front-end engineering and design (FEED) contract to US firm Fluor for the Al-Karaana petrochemicals complex in Ras Laffan industrial city. QP and Shell said the scope of work includes: a world-scale steam cracker, with feedstock coming from natural gas projects in Qatar; a 1.5mn tons/year monoethylene glycol (MEG) plant using Shell’s proprietary Omega technology; a 300,000 t/y linear alpha olefin unit using the proprietary Shell Higher Olefins Process; and a 250,000 t/y oxo-alcohols unit.
The Al-Karaana project is owned 80% by QP and 20% by Shell and is estimated to require a $6.5bn investment. The partners are not expected to confirm the schedule for the project ahead of the final investment decision, but reports suggest they are looking to a 2017 start-up. Qatar’s Minister of Energy and Industry Muhammad al-Sada said: “The Al-Karaana petrochemicals complex has been envisioned to further boost Qatar’s rapidly growing stature in the global petrochemicals industry.” (CONTINUED - 502 WORDS)
