The revelation by QP chief executive Saad Sherida al-Kaabi of plans for a new “world scale” petrochemicals project in Qatar (MEES, 8 December) represents an about-turn after the company ditched plans for a major polyolefins project in 3Q 2014 and a large ethylene glycol project in early 2015.
Mr Kaabi tells MEES that QP’s decision to extract ethane before liquefying gas for export enables it to plan for a cracker of around 1.6mn t/y capacity. QP’s withdrawal from the 1.4mn t/y Al-Sejeel polymers and 1.5mn t/y Al-Karaana ethylene glycol projects came amid the late 2014 collapse in crude prices and revenues. Shell, QP’s partner at Al-Karaana, said at the time that “high capital costs render it commercially unfeasible, particularly in the current economic climate prevailing in the energy industry” (MEES, 16 January 2015). (CONTINUED - 334 WORDS)
