Page 7 - GLNG Week 09 2023

GLNG COMMENTARY GLNG

The North Field, Qatar.

Industrial City, currently under construction. position as a major global player in the upstream,
QatarEnergy’s latest sustainability roadmap also LNG and downstream sectors. This will be fur-
includes projects that will further deploy CCS ther enhanced once the new world-scale petro-
technology with the goal of capturing over 11mn chemical project in Orange, Texas, in the United
tpy of CO2 by 2035. States of America comes online in partnership
with Chevron Phillips Chemical, executed by
Petrochemical goals our joint venture Golden Triangle Polymers
Further down the value chain, QatarEnergy Company.”
and Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. (CPChem) Although touted as clean, environmental
– a joint venture between Chevron and Phillips activists have nonetheless targeted ethane crack-
66 Co. – announced in mid-January that they ers on account of their emissions.
had taken a final investment decision (FID) to
build the Ras Laffan Petrochemicals complex, a NFE LNG
$6bn integrated olefins and polyethylene facili- Unsurprisingly though, the NFE and NFS LNG
ty at Ras Laffan Industrial City. projects remain the jewel in the crown for Doha
The Ras Laffan plant is anticipated to begin and combined will expand LNG production ca-
production in 2026 and will have an ethane pacity from 77mn tpy to 126mn tpy by 2026.
cracker with a capacity of 2.1mn tpy of ethylene. Having signed upwards of $30bn worth of JV
This makes it the largest in the Middle East deals for the projects with IOC partners Cono-
and the world. Furthermore, the plant contains coPhillips, Eni, ExxonMobil, Shell, TotalEner-
two polyethylene trains with an output of 1.7mn gies in mid and late 2022, QatarEnergy’s CEO
tpy of High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) poly- said this week that progress to date on NFE was
mer products, able to raise the total petrochemi- both “significant” and “remarkable”. QatarEn-
cal production capacity of Qatar to almost 14mn ergy’s JVs with TotalEnergies, ExxonMobil and
tpy. Shell will run until 2054, while those with Cono-
Al-Kaabi said at the signing ceremony that coPhillips and Eni will expire in 2049.
“this marks QatarEnergy’s largest investment The NFE development comprises the drill-
ever in Qatar’s petrochemicals sector and the ing of 80 wells, installation of eight offshore
first direct investment in 12 years. It will double platforms, gas pipelines and four 8mn tpy LNG
our ethylene production capacity, and increase trains.
our local polymer production from 2.6 to more The NFE project will consist of 80 develop-
than 4mn tpy, and place the utmost emphasis on ment wells and eight un-manned wellhead plat-
sustainable growth and the environment.” forms. Drilling of these wells had commenced
A 70% equity share will be owned by in March and May of 2020. Companies awarded
QatarEnergy whereas CPChem will own the sub-contracts for the project include Baker
final 30%. Hughes, Honeywell, Air Products and Chiyoda
Al-Kaabi added: “There is no doubt that this Corp.
cornerstone investment in Ras Laffan Indus- The partners are understood to be working
trial City marks an important milestone in to agree terms on the marketing of LNG from
QatarEnergy’s downstream expansion strat- NFE and NFS, with QatarEnergy keen to ensure
egy. It will not only facilitate further expansion that it maintains control the destination of the
in the downstream and petrochemical sectors projects’ output, though this could cause issues
in Qatar, but will also reinforce our integrated with competition laws. ™

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