QatarEnergy and Chevron Phillips to build petrochemical complex at Ras Laffan

QatarEnergy announced the Final Investment Decision (FID) with Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LLC (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 His Excellency Mr. Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, the Minister of State for Energy Affairs, the President and CEO of QatarEnergy, and Mr. 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 Mr. 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 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.

The Ras Laffan Petrochemicals complex, expected to begin production in 2026, 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.

In remarks at the signing ceremony, His Excellency Mr. 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.”