カタールで新たな大型石油化学プロジェクトが始動する。国営カタール石油(QP)とシェブロン・フィリップス・ケミカルは合弁でラスラファン工業地帯に石化コンプレックスを建設する。エタンクラッカーおよびポリエチレン(PE)設備が中核で、エチレン生産能力は中東最大となる年190万トン。商業運転は2025年に開始する見通し。今年1月には石油輸出機構(OPEC)を脱退する一方、LNG(液化天然ガス)の大増産を進めるなど、天然ガス産業へのシフトを明確にしてきたカタールだが、川下の石化投資を拡大することで戦略資源である天然ガスの付加価値をさらに高める狙い。

発表文 2019/6/24

Chevron Phillips Chemical and Qatar Petroleum Sign Agreement to Develop Petrochemical Complex in Qatar

Project builds on long-established relationships and highly-successful existing joint ventures

Qatar Petroleum to have 70 percent majority ownership, Chevron Phillips Chemical to own 30 percent stake

Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LLC and Qatar Petroleum (QP) today announced the signing of an agreement to pursue the development, construction and operation of a petrochemicals complex in Qatar to produce ethylene and high-density polyethylene (HDPE). The facility will be developed and constructed in Ras Laffan Industrial City and is expected to have a 1,900 KTA ethane cracker and two high-density polyethylene derivative units with a combined capacity of 1,680 KTA.
 
Signing of the project agreement documents occurred earlier this morning in Doha by His Excellency Mr. Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, the Minister of State for Energy Affairs and the President & CEO of Qatar Petroleum, and Mark E. Lashier, President & CEO of Chevron Phillips Chemical.
 
Speaking at a press conference held on the sidelines of the signing ceremony, His Excellency Mr. Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi said, “The conclusion of these agreements constitutes an important milestone for Qatar Petroleum as petrochemicals represent a major pillar of our growth strategy to achieve our vision of becoming one of the best national oil and gas companies in the world.”
 
Qatar Petroleum will own a 70 percent majority share of the joint venture and Chevron Phillips Chemical will own the remaining 30 percent.
 
In addition to the exclusive licensing of its MarTECH™ loop slurry process for manufacturing HDPE, Chevron Phillips Chemical will provide project management, engineering and construction services to develop the project. As part of the development phase, the companies will study the potential efficiencies that could be realized by harnessing the existing capabilities of the Qatar Chemical Company (Q-Chem) joint ventures to provide overall operational management of the facility once complete.
 
“Developing this project is a tremendous opportunity for our company to expand on our highly-successful joint ventures with the State of Qatar to meet the growing global demand for petrochemical products that enrich lives around the world,” said Lashier. “Qatar is one of the world’s leading producers of the natural gas liquids that will fuel these world-scale assets. This project fits perfectly with our global strategy to build petrochemical assets in regions of the world where feedstock options are abundant and competitively-priced.
 
“We look forward to building on our strong relationship with Qatar Petroleum and believe that these new world-scale assets will deliver exceptional value,” concluded Lashier.
 
The engineering design phase of the project should commence shortly, leading to a planned start-up in late 2025.
 

 

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Chevron Phillips, Qatar to Build Mideast's Top Ethylene Plant

 

Qatar Petroleum chose Chevron Phillips Chemical as its partner in a joint venture to produce as much as 1.9 million tons a year of ethylene, Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, QP’s chief executive officer, said in Doha. The venture will process the chemical from ethane, a natural gas liquid, pumped at Qatar’s giant North Field.

The venture will cost billions of dollars, though a more precise estimate must await the completion of engineering studies, Al-Kaabi said. State-run QP raised the production target from an initial plan for 1.6 million tons a year.

“We saw better results than expected from the North Field, and we were able to have more ethane available for extraction,” Al-Kaabi said Monday, referring to Qatar’s portion of the offshore reservoir it shares with Iran. So, QP increased the venture’s ethylene target, he said. “We like them big in Qatar.”

Qatar, the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas, is boosting output at home and picking up assets abroad. This latest push into chemicals reverses its previous pullback from the industry, when it ended plans to build two projects valued at $12.5 billion after oil prices collapsed in 2014.

Biggest Cracker

The joint venture will be the biggest facility in the Middle East for processing ethane -- or “cracking” it, in industry parlance -- into ethylene, Al-Kaabi said. It will also produce high density polyethylene, Chevron Phillips Chemical CEO Mark Lashier said. QP will own 70% of the project, with the Texas-based company holding the rest.

Qatar’s polyethylene production will rise to 4,300 tons a year when the plant is completed in 2025, from 2,300 tons currently, Al-Kaabi said.  能力 168万トン

Qatar’s plant will include an ethane cracker with an annual ethylene capacity of about 1.9 million tonnes, making it the Middle East’s largest and one of the biggest in the world, said Kaabi, adding that the plant will increase Qatar’s polyethylene output capacity by 82%.

Kaabi said it was too early to give an estimated cost for the project as the engineering study was not over yet but added that the complex’s cost would be in the “billions of dollars”.

Qatar produces about 2,300 tonnes per year of polyethylene, and the plant will raise its output potential to about 4,300 tonnes.

 

Petrochemicals are the building blocks of our daily stuff, from sports shoes to computer keyboards, created when oil and natural gas molecules are split, or cracked, to produce ethylene, propylene and other chemicals. Ethylene is used to make polyethylene, the most commonly used plastic.

Energy producers view these compounds increasingly as crucial to unlocking more profit from each barrel of crude they pump, and demand for these chemicals is growing faster than for oil and gas.

With oil at $65 a barrel, crude producers can earn $15 a barrel by refining their output and an extra $30 on top of that by converting it into petrochemicals, Abdulwahab Al Sadoun, secretary-general of the Gulf Petrochemicals & Chemicals Association, told Bloomberg last year.

Qatar, a sheikhdom in the Persian Gulf, plans to boost LNG capacity from 77 million tons to 110 million tons by 2024, which will lift its total domestic production of oil and gas to 6.5 million barrels of oil equivalent a day from 4.8 million currently. It has already made a “final decision” to proceed with the LNG expansion, said Al-Kaabi, who also serves as the country’s minister of state for energy affairs.

Expansion at the North Field is going according to plan, and Qatar will award engineering, procurement and construction contracts for onshore facilities this year, Al-Kaabi said. Qatar is still to decide whether to produce LNG by itself or with partners.

Its offshore Barzan gas project should start producing by the end of 2019, he said. Barzan, which is intended to supply the local market, has been delayed for years.

Qatar’s gas ambitions aren’t confined to the giant offshore field it shares with Iran. The country is going global, pledging $20 billion for U.S. gas and LNG, and picking up stakes in projects and exploration licenses in Mozambique, Argentina, Mexico and Cyprus.