Qatar Petroleum in JV with partners from France and Japan for condensate refinery

23-Apr-13

State-owned Qatar Petroleum (QP) signed a joint venture agreement with France's Total and Japan's Idemitsu, Cosmo Oil, Marubeni and Mitsui for a new condensate refinery to be built in Qatar at Ras Laffan Industrial City. Under the agreement, QP will hold hold 84% of the Laffan Refinery 2 (LR2) joint venture, Total will hold 10%, Idemitsu and Cosmo 2% each, and Marubeni and Mitsui 1% each. The planned LR2 condensate refinery would be similar in configuration to the Laffan Refinery 1 (LR1), which started operations in September 2009, and would have a processing capacity of 146,000 bpd of condensate. The project would be financed through a combination of equity and bank debt. "Like LR1, LR2 plans to produce petroleum products including naphtha, kerosene, diesel oil and LPG by refining condensate produced at Qatar's North Field, which is one of the largest natural gas fields in the world," Cosmo Oil said in a statement Monday. "To be equipped with a diesel hydrotreater, LR2 plans to increase the added value of diesel oil products." The total cost of the LR2 project is estimated at $1.5 billion, including $1.2 billion for the capital cost of the refinery, with completion of construction expected in the second half 2016. "The construction of the new refinery will give Ras Laffan a total installed condensate refining capacity of about 300,000 bpd, making it one of the largest single-site facilities of its kind in the world," Sada said. Commissioning of a diesel hydro-treater unit, currently under construction at the site, was expected in the second quarter of 2014. The unit would have enough capacity to process all the gas oil from the LR1 and LR2 into ultra-low sulfur diesel meeting the most stringent international environmental specifications, he said.