QatarEnergy is anticipated to award the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract for its $50 million upgrade project for eight Refinery Chemical Stores in Mesaieed Industrial City by the fourth quarter of 2023.
The EPC contract tender was reportedly issued on July 18, 2023, with the bid submission deadline set for August 13, 2023. It is projected that the contract will be awarded by early November 2023, as reported by Zawya Projects.
The scope of the project involves the construction and upgrade of the existing eight Refinery Chemical Stores. The estimated value of the project is $50 million, and it is anticipated to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2025, as per the same source.
QatarEnergy’s Refinery complex located in Mesaieed Industrial City was first established in 1954 and then modified through several expansion phases to meet the growing domestic requirement in Qatar, with the capacity to process more than 100,000 barrels of feed per day.
SEEF Chemical Plant was integrated with QatarEnergy Refinery in 2020. The main activity of the Refinery is to process crude oil and condensate into various finished products to meet domestic demand as well as for export.
Qatar’s Downstream Push
QatarEnergy is currently building its $6 billion Ras Laffan Petrochemicals Complex with partner Chevron Phillips Chemical, expected to be the largest of its kind in the Middle East.
The complex, expected to begin production in 2026, includes an ethane cracker with a capacity of 2.1 million tonnes of ethylene per year.
The integrated complex will also include two high-density polyethylene derivative units with a total production capacity of 1.7 million tonnes per year.
Originally announced in 2019, the project highlights how Middle East oil producers are expanding further into petrochemicals, used in the production of plastics and packaging materials, to move into new markets and find new sources of income beyond exporting crude oil and natural gas.
