Qapco has said its third low density polyethylene plant (LDPE-3), for which it recently selected Germany’s Uhde as EPC contractor, reinforces its role as a key supplier of the chemical to Middle East and Asian markets.

LDPE-3, which Uhde, a unit of ThyssenKrupp Technologies, will complete by December 2011, will have an annual capacity of 300,000 tonnes.
The $550-million expansion will use surplus ethylene from Qapco and Qatofin, the latter beginning production of linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) in the fourth quarter of this year.
LDPE-3 will take Qapco’s LDPE production capacity to 660,000 tonnes per year and make up one of three significant company events of recent years, the other two being Qatofin’s impending start-up and the 2008 expansion to Qapco’s Ethylene-2 plant which took the company’s total ethylene production from 550,000 tonnes to 720,000 tonnes annually.
The ethane feedstock for Qapco’s ethylene production comes from sister-company Qatar Petroleum. Most of the ethylene production is used as feedstock for producing LDPE which Qapco sells under the Lotrene brand. The remainder of the ethylene is supplied to Qapco subsidiary Qatar Vinyl Company for producing ethylene dichloride, vinyl chloride monomer and caustic soda.
The LDPE grades that Qapco produces are suitable to all thermosplastic processing techniques with applications in films, pipes, cables and wires as well as moulded products.

Key player
“By implementing this new project, Qapco will continue to strengthen and boost its position as a key player in supplying polyethylene to strategic markets in the Middle East and Asia,” said Qapco chairman and Qatar’s Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyeh, commenting on LDPE-3.
Al Attiyeh added that the company was constantly striving to further expand its range of petrochemical products.
Klaus Schneiders, chairman of Uhde’s board and the company’s CEO, said Uhde has been active in Qatar in the turnkey implementation of fertiliser and petrochemical complexes for more than 15 years.
“Uhde has a long and successful track record in Qatar and once again we have proved to be a reliable partner to the Qatari industry,” he added.
Qapco also produces sulphur, a byproduct from its production process. The sulphur plant has an annual capacity of 70,000 tonnes annually and the product is exported largely to the Indian Subcontinent.
Qapco is owned 80 per cent by Industries Qatar and 20 per cent by Total Petrochemicals (formerly Atofina) of France.

Qatofin prepares for start-up
Before year’s end Qatofin will begin producing 450,000 tonnes annually of high-quality linear low density polyethylene in Mesaieed industrial City.
Ethylene for Qatofin will be piped by the ethane cracker of Ras Laffans Olefins Company (RLOC) which will be completed around the same time. RLOC will have a production capacity of 1.3 million tonnes per year and as much as 600,000 tonnes or 46.15 per cent of that output will be utilised by Qatofin with the remainder being piped to Q-Chem-2.
RLOC will utilise ethane extracted by Dolphin Energy and Al Khaleej Gas (AKG) and operate its plant in Ras Laffan Industrial City adjacent to Dolphin and AKG. Owners of RLOC are Qatofin (45.69 per cent share), Q-Chem-2 (53.31 per cent) and QP (1 per cent). Qatofin is owned by Qapco (63 per cent), Total Petrochemicals (36 per cent) and Qatar Petroleum (1 per cent). Q-Chem-2 has Qatar Petroleum (51 per cent) and Chevron Phillips Holding (49 per cent) as shareholders.
To produce 450,000 tonnes of LLDPE, Qatofin will process around 422,000 tonnes or ethylene and about 38,000 tonnes of butane-1, the latter being supplied by Q-Chem-2. Under an agreement, Q-Chem-2 will produce that amount of butane by a supply of 40,000 tonnes of ethylene by Qatofin.
For making LLDPE, Qatofin will utilise a production technology licensed by the US company Univation Technologies, holder of the world patent of the Unipol PE gas phase process (ex Union Carbide).
The Qatofin project will cost approximately $1.3 billion.