Total Plans Petrochemical Plant in Qatar

Total, the French oil giant has entered into talks with Qatar regarding a petrochemical plant a spokesman for Total said last week.

The talks are in relation to a petrochemical complex that Qatar is planning to build in Ras Laffan, where it has also been working with ExxonMobil. The project was initially valued at US$6 billion.

"We are in discussions with Qatar about the project. But they are still in a very early stage," a Total spokesman said.

According to Reuters, two industry sources have claimed that Exxon Mobil has pulled out of the Ras Laffan project. But the company has denied the reports and repeated its statement from August when it said it was still working with Qatar. However, Total Petrochemicals' senior vice president for Asia and the Middle East, Graeme Burnett, was quoted as saying in ICIS news that Exxon Mobil, Total's US rival, has exited the project. If Exxon does pull out of the project, it will be the third time a US company has pulled out of an energy project in the Gulf region this year.

"ExxonMobil has exited the cracker project in Qatar, and we've always told media that we are interested in doing another project in Qatar," he was quoted as saying in the article published last week.

The proposed complex in Ras Laffan includes a 1.6 million tonnes per year (tpy) steam cracker and associated units including two 650 tpy polyethylene plants and a 700 tpy ethylene glycol facility.

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