QATAR - Qatar Petrochemical Company.

Qapco is the largest producer of petrochemicals in the Middle East. It is owned by QGPC (80%), Atochem of Elf (10%) and Enichem of ENI (10%). Its complex at Umm Said has the following capacity:

- A 525,000 t/y ethylene plant, expanded in mid-1996 from 304,000 t/y. The new units were built by Technip of France under a $120m turnkey contract, using technology developed by Technip, Technologie Progetti Lavori and Kinetics Technology International of the Netherlands - marketed under the name "Topkin". Its output is used mainly as feedstock for the polyethylene units. A planned revamp of this unit will result in the addition of 100,000 b/d of ethylene capacity. In future it will supply the plants of Qatar Vinyl Co. (QVC) and Qatar Plastic Products Co. (QPPC).

- A 365,000 t/y low density polyethylene (LDPE) plant, raised in mid-1996 from 180,000 t/y. The new units, built by Snamprogetti under a $150m contract, are using the tubular technology licenced by Enichem. A planned expansion of this plant will involve debottlenecking work.

The complex's power plant was expanded by 45 MW under a $50m contract won by Technologie Progetti Lavori (a Technip-Italian JV) which also installed a desalination unit with a capacity of 85 tons/hour and a nitrogen plant. (The Qapco expansion had been promoted since 1989. The delay was mostly due to a finance issue, with QGPC insisting the expansion be covered from external funds, foreign equity and concessionary loans. The financial advisor was Morgan Stanley. Basic designs were done by Socetec of France. Coppee Lavalin of Belgium was the project manager. In March 1994, a six-year loan of $200m was arranged by Banque Paribas, British Bank of the Middle East, GIB, Apicorp and Qatar National Bank. In mid-1998, Qapco and the same banks concluded a refinancing deal for $130m worth of commercial loans and thus the company became the first industrial entity in Qatar to refinance its debt. This allowed Qapco to meet its equity obligations for the QVC project).

Qapco and Technip in April 1999 signed a contract for the French firm to raise the capacity of the 1,100 t/y ethane recovery plant by 25%. Qapco signed a licence agreement with UOP to upgrade the technology of its amine unit and the ethane separation unit. The latter uses the Cryoplus process from Technip. On Feb. 28, 1999, Qapco and Enichem signed an MoU to have a 100,000 t/y toluene di-osocyanate (TDI) plant built at the Umm Said complex by 2003 at a cost of $250m. Detailed studies for this are to be ready by Feb. 2000.

Qatar Vinyl Company (QVC) was formed in early January 1997 to have a plant built next to Qapco's complex at Umm Said. A Krupp Uhde/Technipetrol partnership is the main contractor, which won the $430m job shortly after QVC got a $475m loan from a group of banks in April 1999.

QVC will produce 340,000 t/y of ethylene dichloride (EDC), 290,000 t/y of caustic soda and chlorine and 230,000 t/y of vinyl chloride monomer (VCM). The plant should be on stream in the second quarter of 2001. Its ethylene feedstock will be supplied by Qapco's cracker which was expanded in 1996. Ethane will be supplied to the complex from Qapco's NGL-4 plant being built at Umm Said. QVC's plant will cost more than $500m and will have its own 120 MW power station. A second phase of the project will involve building a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) unit.

The partners in QVC are: QGPC (25.5%), Qapco (31.9%), Norsk Hydro of Norway (29.7%), and Elf Atochem (12.9%). Qapco in late 1995 opted against a partnership with OxyChem of the US. Agreement to launch the QVC project was first reached in May 1996. Societe Generale of France was appointed as financial advisor in October 1997. (Norsk Hydro is QGPC's partner in the fertiliser complex of Qafco at Umm Said - see below).