QATAR - Qatar Petrochemical Company.

Qapco is the largest producer of petrochemicals in the Middle East. It is owned by QP (80%), TotalFinaElf (10%) and Enichem of ENI (10%). Qapco in April announced that its profits in 2000 had risen by 13% to QR 430m ($118m). Its profits in 1999 had risen by 30% from 1998 to QR 380m ($104m). 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 production of polyethylene. But ethylene production cannot exceed 500,000 t/y. A revamp of Qapco's ethane recovery unit, done by Technip and to be completed next month, will enable the plant to produce at the design 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 partial expansion of this plant involves 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 QP (then called 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 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.

Additional ethane to Qapco's cracker will be supplied as of early 2002 from NGL-4 plant which is being built at Umm Said (see DT 10).

Qatar Vinyl Company (QVC) began production in mid-2001 as its plant next to Qafco's complex at Umm Said went on stream with a capacity of 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). Its ethylene feedstock is supplied by Qapco's cracker. QVC's plant has cost about $700m and has its own 120 MW power station. A second phase of the QVC project will involve building a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) unit.

The partners in QVC are: QP (25.5%), Qapco (31.9%), Norsk Hydro of Norway (29.7%), and TotalFinaElf - 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 QP's partner in the fertiliser complex of Qafco at Umm Said - see below). QVC was formed in early January 1997. A Krupp Uhde/Technipetrol partnership was the main contractor, which won the $430m job shortly after QVC got a $475m loan from a group of banks in April 1999.

QVC is to buy 250,000 t/y of industrial salt from Jordan Safi Salt Co. (Jossco) as from November 2001. This is under a five-year contract signed in Amman in November 2000. QVC could boost its total purchases by 25% over ther contract period.