In the presence of Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and the President of the United States, Donald Trump, the agreement being signed by H E Saad Sherida Al Kaabi, Minister of State for Energy Affairs, the President and CEO of Qatar Petroleum, and
Doha: Qatar Petroleum has signed an agreement yesterday with Chevron Phillips Chemical to develop a new world-scale petrochemical project in the Gulf Coast region of the United States of America.
The signing took place at the White House, in the presence of the Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and the President of the United States, Donald Trump. The agreement was signed by H E Saad Sherida Al Kaabi, Minister of State for Energy Affairs, the President and CEO of Qatar Petroleum, and by Mark E Lashier, President & CEO of Chevron Phillips Chemical.
With an estimated cost of around $8 billion, the US Gulf Coast II Petrochemical Project (USGC II) will include an ethylene cracker with a capacity of 2 million tonnes per annum making it the largest cracker in the world, and two high-density polyethylene units with a capacity of one million tonnes per annum each. The complex will be located in the US Gulf Coast region, where there is direct access to significant ethane quantities produced by US shale basins, including the prolific Permian Basin.
Pursuant to the agreement, Qatar Petroleum will own a 49% share in the USGC II project, while Chevron Phillips Chemical will own the remaining 51% share and provide project management and oversight and be responsible for the operation and management of the facility.
Al Kaabi welcomed the signing of the agreement and said “This is the second agreement of its kind in as many weeks, with our trusted partner, Chevron Phillips Chemical, to further cement the strong partnership between our two companies and to complement Qatar Petroleum’s international portfolio in the United States, which is a core growth area for us as we believe it has great prospects and growth opportunities.”
“This important project will help meet increasing global demand for petrochemicals market. It also showcases the momentum of Qatar Petroleum’s international growth strategy, which has taken robust steps in various upstream and downstream activities in many parts of the world,” the Minister concluded.
The award of engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts for the USGC II project is currently planned for 2021 with targeted startup of the new facility in 2024.
In June 2019, Qatar Petroleum announced a joint venture with Chevron Phillips Chemical to pursue a world-scale petrochemical plant in Qatar at the Ras Laffan Industrial City with a nameplate capacity of 1.9 million tons of ethylene per annum, making it the largest ethane cracker in the Middle East and one of the largest in the world.
