Qatar Petrochemical Company (Qapco) has announced it will nearly double its production of ethylene and polyethylene within the next four years.

General manager Hamad Rashid Al Mohannadi said ethylene production would rise to 1.1 million tonnes per year (tpy) from the current level of 525,000 tpy and polyethylene to 950,000 tpy from 400,000 tpy.
Al Mohannadi also said the company would expand its network to North and South America by 2008 and that in the mean time it would open three more commercial self-operated offices in India with the main office located at Bombay.
Studies were also underway for a self-operated office and a regional store in the UAE at Jebel Ali. The Jebel Ali office would also serve as Qapco’s strategic centre in the Gulf, he said in remarks published in the company’s official journal.
The company also planned to open a regional store in Egypt to integrate with the commercial office opened in 2002. It would also restructure its Pakistan office, Al Mohannadi said.  Qapco has already opened three offices in China at Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai and an office in Syria.
The company is implementing an ethylene debottlenecking project aimed at increasing by 37 per cent the production capacity of ethylene from 525,000 tpy to 720,000 tpy. By 2005 the production of low-density polyethylene is expected to rise by 50,000 tpy to reach 450,000 tpy. The project will be completed in the second half of 2005 at a cost of $150 million.
Also in progress is the Qatofin project, a joint venture signed by Qapco (63 per cent), Atofina (36 per cent) and QP (1 per cent) to establish a linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) plant in Mesaieed, adjacent to the existing Qapco plant. The plant, which will be ready by mid-2006, is expected to produce around 450,000 tpy of polyethylene, most of which will be exported to Asia and Europe.
Qapco is also involved in a joint venture between Q-Chem, Qatofin and QP to establish an ethane cracker plant in Ras Laffan Industrial City and a 120-km pipeline from Ras Laffan to Mesaieed to transport the ethylene produced. Qapco and Atofina will jointly own 45.69 per cent of the shares while Q-Chem and QP will own 53.31 percent and 1 per cent respectively.
The Ras Laffan cracker will be one of the world’s largest ethane cracker plants and is expected to produce 1.3 million tpy of ethylene. The derivatives of the polyethylene plants will be located in Mesaieed within the existing facilities of Q-Chem and Qapco. The ethane feedstock for the cracker unit will be supplied by the adjacent enhanced gas utilisation (EGU) project and Dolphin project’s onshore facilities. 
Qapco produces various LDPE grades to satisfy the requirements of most thermoplastics processing techniques including blown film extrusion, cast film extrusion, extrusion coating, wire and cable coating, injection moulding and blow moulding.
A substantial part of ethylene is consumed for the production of LDPE grades, which are marketed under the ‘Lotrene’ brand. The remaining ethylene is supplied to Qatar Vinyl Company to meet its feed requirements.
Qapco also has a sulphur plant with a capacity for 70,000 tpy. Production in 2002 was 44,000 tpy.
Qapco is jointly owned by Industries Qatar (IQ) and Atofina. IQ purchased all of Qatar Petroleum’s (QP) shares (20 per cent of the total stake) in 2003. QP is a wholly owned corporation of the state of Qatar and has responsibility for developing and distributing Qatar’s oil and gas reserves.  Atofina is a wholly owned subsidiary of TotalfinaElf.