The project would ramp up Doha’s overall petrochemical production to 14 million tonnes per annum.

QatarEnergy announced the final investment decision with Chevron Phillips Chemical Company to build the $6 billion Ras Laffan Petrochemicals complex, marking one of its largest investments in the petrochemical sector.

The two companies signed the agreement in a ceremony in Doha on Sunday that was attended by QatarEnergy’s CEO Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi and Chevron Phillips Chemical’s President and CEO and Bruce Chinn.

“This marks QatarEnergy’s largest investment ever in Qatar’s petrochemicals sector and the first direct investment in 12 years,” Al-Kaabi told the press.

Under the agreement, the two companies will also form a joint venture, under which QataEnergy owns 70% of shares as Chevron holds the remaining 30%. 

In 2019, QatarEnergy, then called Qatar Petroleum, named Chevron Phillips Chemical as its joint venture for the Ras Laffan petrochemicals complex, which will have an ethane cracker with the capacity of 1.9 million tonnes of ethylene per annum.

Al-Kaabi announced that the number will be ramped up to 2.1 million tonnes per annum, making it the largest ethane cracker in the Middle East and among the biggest on a global scale. 

Production at the integrated complex is set to begin in 2026 and will have lower waste and greenhouse gas emissions in comparison to similar facilities around the world. Qatar’s overall petrochemical production will reach 14 million tonnes per annum.

Al-Kaabi noted that the investment in Ras Laffan “will also reinforce” QatarEnergy’s position “as a major global player” in the upstream, downstream, and liquified natural gas sector.

“This will be further enhanced once the new world-scale petrochemical project in Orange, Texas in the United States of America comes online also in partnership with Chevron Phillips Chemica,” Al-Kaabi said.

Last year, QatarEnergy awarded the early site contract for the Ras Laffan Petrochemical Project to Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC).

CCC was also awarded a lump-sum contract to prepare the site for the project’s facility Ras Laffan Industrial City.

The RLPP, a joint venture between QatarEnergy and US-based Chevron Phillips Chemical, initially announced in 2019.