Qatar Daily News

Qatar Petroleum International, a unit of the emirate’s state-run oil company, plans to build two petrochemical plants costing about $9.8 billion in Asia by 2015 to tap demand in the world’s fastest-growing region.

Qatar will partner Cnooc Ltd. and a Chinese petrochemicals maker to construct a $5.8 billion plant in China’s Hainan province, Chief Executive Officer Nasser al-Jaidah said in an interview in Tokyo yesterday. Another project in Vietnam will cost as much as $4 billion and both ventures will use Qatari liquefied petroleum gas to produce chemicals, he said.

“There is huge potential for growth in Asia, especially China,” al-Jaidah said. “We can hit two birds with one stone — tap the markets and exit our product,” he said, without disclosing Qatar’s share of investment in the venture.
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Qatar would like to see costs on three energy projects cut by as much as 40 percent, the country’s oil minister said on Monday.

“We are looking to cut costs by 20 to 30 percent,” Oil Minister Abdullah al-Attiyah said at a press conference after the inauguration of a new gas plant. “But 40 percent would be better.”

Qatar has delayed projects to build the Shaheen refinery, the Mesaieed Aromatics plant and to develop the Barzan gas field as it looks to take advantage of a slump in the price of raw materials to drive down costs.

The Shaheen oil refinery was planned to have capacity of 250,000 barrels per day. Qatar has completed the preliminary engineering and design study for the project.
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Exxon Mobil is still in talks with state-run Qatar Petroleum (QP) to build a petrochemical cracker, a senior Exxon executive said on Tuesday.

The slump in demand for petrochemicals as global economic activity slows has raised doubts about plans for petrochemical expansion. The Middle East has a slew of projects under contruction and planning as the world’s top oil exporters look to develop their economies.

Exxon and QP have been talking about the plant for four years after signing an initial deal in 2005. A final deal was expected in 2006, but has yet to be struck.
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QATAR Airways is one step closer to becoming the world’s first airline to fly on gas-to-liquids kerosene oil as its aircraft engines will be certified for GTL use by the year-end.

Certification from the Federal Aviation Agency (US) and European authority concerned for GTL use in Qatar Airways’ aircraft engines was expected by 2009-end, the airline’s CEO Akbar al-Baker, told Gulf Times yesterday.

“We need certification from these authorities before we can start using GTL in our aircraft engines. This is because our engines are made either by American or European manufacturers,” he said.
GTL kerosene is highly environmentally-friendly and will significantly reduce carbon emissions. It is dubbed “green fuel” because of its non-polluting features.

Qatar is fast emerging as the global centre for GTL technology as it has invested billions of dollars in setting up two gas-to-liquids projects at Ras Laffan – Pearl GTL and Oryx GTL.
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