Qatar Petroleum plans new world-scale ethane cracker

Qatar Petroleum has announced that it has invited a group of leading international companies, with extensive experiences in the petrochemicals industry, to submit proposals for partnering with QP in the development/ operation of a new world scale petrochemicals complex at Ras Laffan Industrial City.

The petrochemicals complex will include an ethane cracker with a capacity of more than 1.6 million tons per year of ethylene, making it the largest ethane cracker in the Middle East, and one of the largest in the world. The petrochemicals complex will also include world-class derivative plants.

The engineering design of the complex should commence shortly, leading to a planned start-up in 2025.

Commenting on the announcement, Wood Mackenzie’s Principal Analyst, Patrick Kirby, said, “The global ethylene market continues to demonstrate robust growth and new supply is needed to meet future demand. Beyond existing, firm and likely ethylene capacity, we see a further 65 million tons of new capacity is needed by 2035 just to meet base demand. This equates to around 4-5 worldscale steam crackers being brought online every year. This project, if commenced, would take Qatar’s total nameplate ethylene capacity to over 4.5 million tons – a more than 50 percent increase from the current level.”