On the 8th of January 2023, the FID (Final Investment Decision) between QatarEnergy and Chevron Phillips Chemical Company was signed with the objective to produce the Ras Laffan Petrochemical complex worth $6 billion in the Industrial City of the same name (Al-Mohannadi, 2023). Natural gas is Qatar's primary energy source, which has expanded its horizon by earning huge capital and investing in local assets. The country has a high energy consumption of around 15,840 kWh. Although the slow growth happened in amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the government has been able to regain its lucrative condition in the post-pandemic era (Oxford Analytica, 2022). On the other hand, Qatar has been able to expose its lucrative name by systematically monitoring and control the sudden surge of inflation, which lasted a few weeks. Moreover, when it comes to utilising natural energy for the country, Qatar has QatarEnergy, a prominent petroleum company that primarily works with LNG or Liquefied natural gas. This is a state-owned public corporation with its inception in 1974.
Indeed, the Russia-Ukraine conflict brought about a change in the condition of the natural resources triggering the Qatari liquified natural gas and especially supercharging the revenues of the state and stabilising the company’s position for being one of the most prominent resourceful company which was evident in the operational hosting of FIFA World Cup 2022. It has upright by two-thirds for approximately $32 billion, making the tiny gulf a tycoon in its arena. QatarEnergy already has lucrative projects in Mexico (US Gulf), Suriname, Egypt, Guyana, Angola, Namibia, and South Africa, while other mini companies like Abu Dhabi National Oil Company and Saudi Aramco have invested in domestic products. Qatar’s share in the LNG global is shone through its partnership with first-world countries, USA, in advancing its operation and running smoothly with national resources.
Source: Wood-Mackenzie (2022), Qatar and US global supply by 2030
As it is evident from the statistics that investment in the production of petrochemical and solar energy for Qatar has contained different initiatives through involvement in various international programs (O’Connell, 2019). Natural gas burns less than oil and coal, which triggers the transition in world energy.
Moreover, the US-based petrochemical company Chevron Philips Chemical Company was founded in early 2000, operating with chemical operations. It is renowned for being partnered to produce chemicals essential for manufacturing more than 80,000 consumers (Dogan-Akkas, 2022). The LLC works with olefins, piping, polyolefins, plastic and aromatics, with an approximate worth of $13.416 billion.
The Ras Laffan Industrial City is nothing but a petrochemical complex project, an ongoing project anchored by Qatar and the US’s petrochemical corporation involving the ethane checker with a 1.4 MTPA (Million Tons Per Annum) of ethylene. The required feedstock will be the production of ethane sourced at the North Filed LNG expansion project involved in the additional 23 MTPA (Al-Mohannadi, 2023). Indeed, the PP (Polypropylene) availability will be able to induct with the making of homopolymers, copolymers and related impacts using durable goods, packing, non-woven, automotive parts and fibres. This will complement all the efforts in the strategy implementation of the two corporations and enable Qatar to be awarded for contract EPCI installation and fabrication. In January 2023, the leaders gathered to finalise all the concluding operations for the project and scheme creation.
Reference
Al-Mohannadi, S. A., & Al-Mohannadi, D. M. (2023). Qatar in the Energy Transition: Low Carbon Economy Challenges and Opportunities. Sustainable Qatar, 109-126.
Cronshaw, M. (2021). Energy Industries. In Energy in Perspective (pp. 189-202). Springer, Cham.
Dogan-Akkas, B. (2022). Qatar: energy abundance and small powers. In Handbook on Oil and International Relations (pp. 284-301). Edward Elgar Publishing.
O’Connell, B. (2019). A ‘Made in Qatar’Energy Transition Strategy. European Energy and Environmental Law Review, 28(6).
Oxford Analytica. (2022). Qatar and United States to feed global LNG appetite. Emerald Expert Briefings, (oxan-db).
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