Qatar, the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas, is in talks with Total SA and Royal Dutch Shell Plc about possible construction of a petrochemical complex as the country seeks more ways of using its own gas.

“We are discussing it with several” companies, Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah said in Doha on Tuesday. “We will take the best offer,” he said, declining to give the value for a potential project.
Qatar is using its natural gas reserves, the world’s third largest, to run petrochemical, aluminum and fertilizer factories as it diversifies its economy away from exporting liquefied natural gas and crude oil. The Persian Gulf emirate aims to raise its annual production of petrochemicals to 28 million metric tons by 2014, al-Attiyah said in May.
Total has designs ready for a new petrochemical complex in Qatar if a $6 billion project announced by Exxon Mobil Corp. early this year is canceled, two people with knowledge of the matter said last week. Al-Attiyah didn’t comment specifically on Exxon’s project on Tuesday.
Exxon is “still talking” with Qatar about the venture, Thomas Walters, president of ExxonMobil Gas & Power Marketing Co., said in Doha on Tuesday. He added that he is responsible for the company’s upstream operations and is not directly involved in talks about the proposed petrochemical facility.
---------Biggest project
State-controlled Qatar Petroleum signed an agreement with Exxon in January to build a petrochemical complex that would be the emirate’s biggest single energy-related project since Shell’s Pearl gas-to-liquids plant was announced in 2006. Qatar may choose a different partner, a Qatar Petroleum official said in August.
Exxon’s planned facility was to include a 1.6 million-ton- a-year steam cracker, two 650,000-ton polyethylene plants and a 700,000-ton ethylene glycol unit. Construction was to be completed by 2015, the companies said in January.
Total owns stakes in four Qatari facilities that liquefy gas and is a shareholder in Qatar Petrochemical Co. and Qatofin Co.’s linear low-density polyethylene plant.
Shell’s $19 billion Pearl gas-to-liquids plant may be fully operational in the first quarter of 2012.
(Source: Bloomberg)