Qatar Petrochemical Company (Qapco) and firms related to it are on the threshold of key developments.

Construction is ongoing at the Qapco complex in Mesaieed Industrial City for a new low density polyethylene (LDPE) plant with completion scheduled for the first quarter of 2012. Qapco’s production capacity will get a boost of 300,000 tonnes annually from the plant which is being built as LDPE-3. The other two LDPE plants together have an annual capacity of more than 400,000 tonnes, and with the third plant the total for the product will reach 700,000 tonnes per year.

The company produces a wide range of LDPE grades suitable to all thermoplastics processing techniques with applications such as packaging film, agricultural film, extrusion and lamination film, high-clarity film, injection moulding and other products having wide usage.

Qapco’s LDPE is marketed under the trademark Lotrene.

The company produces 720,000 tonnes of ethylene from ethane coming from various sources of Qatar’s oil and gas industry. Most of that ethylene is consumed by Qapco’s LDPE plants and by its sister company Qatar Vinyl Company. Around 150,000 tonnes of excess ethylene is shipped to overseas customers. Qapco plans to expand capacity to bring it closer to a million tonnes per year.

Earlier this year, Shaw Group Inc announced it had been awarded a contract by Qapco to provide basic engineering services for the expansion of its ethylene plant. The project will provide the design needed for expanding capacity by up to 25 per cent.

Qapco and two neighbouring companies (NGL and Qatar Petroleum Refinery) are extracting sulphur from their processed streams. Sulphur from those sources are then gathered at Qapco, treated and exported, mainly to the Indian sub-continent. Qapco sulphur has a high level of purity and low moisture content.

RLOC, Chem II and Qatofin

There is a possibility that the cracker of Ras Laffan Olefins Company (RLOC) will see a rise in output capacity from 1.3 million tonnes to 1.45 million tonnes and onward to 1.6 million. Construction plans will have to wait as a feasibility study is underway. The RLOC plant, which opened in May, is one of the world’s largest ethylene producers, its production going to the Q-Chem II petrochemical complex and to Qatofin’s 450,000 tonnes per year linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) plant which opened in November of 2009. Chem II is building HDPE and alpha-olefin plants for which RLOC will be supplying its ethylene.

RLOC was set up by Chem II and Qatofin. Chem II is a joint venture between Qatar Petroleum and Chevron Phillips Chemical Company while Qatofin is a joint venture involving Qapco (63 per cent shareholding), Total Petrochemicals of France (36 per cent) and Qatar Petroleum (1 per cent).

Qatofin may also see an expansion, but no figures for the possible increment have been divulged. It produces a wide range of LLDPE grades suitable for all thermoplastics applications such as packaging film, agricultural film, stretch film, cling film, lamination and other products having wide usage. Qatofin’s LLDPE helps these products meet high quality performance and consistency

Qapco markets a substantial portion of Qatofin’s production under the Lotrene trademark.