Qatar’s state-owned oil company Qatar Petroleum (QP) has signed a deal with Norwegian oil and aluminium giant Hydro to build a large aluminium smelter.

The $3 billion plant will have QP as the major shareholder with a 51 per cent stake, leaving Hydro to take the remainder.  
The project is being designed for a first-phase capacity of 570,000 tonnes of primary aluminium and is expected to reach full capacity in 2009, Qatari Energy Minister Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah and Hydro chief executive Eivind Reiten said after signing the agreement.
“Qatar is a strategic location for this project,” Al Attiyah said, adding that his country’s vast gas reserves represented “secure and competitive supplies” for power production.
The project, built in the Mesaieed Industrial Area, south of Doha, involves the construction of an aluminium metal plant and a casthouse in addition to a dedicated power plant.
“A major primary aluminium production unit in Qatar will be a very important step to strengthen our position as a top-tier global aluminium company,” said Reiten. Qatar’s giant North Field has proven reserves of more than 900 trillion cubic feet of gas, the third largest in the world.
The Gulf has two major smelters, namely Dubai Aluminium (Dubal) and Aluminium Bahrain (Alba), and both are implementing expansions. Dubal’s capacity is being upgraded from    686,000 tpy to 761,000 tpy and Alba’s from 520,000 tpy to 830,000 tpy.