Qatar Petroleum acquiring Shell chemical ventures

Nov. 12, 2009
Qatar Petroleum International signed a series of agreements to acquire two Singapore chemical joint ventures from Royal Dutch Shell PLC.

By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Nov. 12
-- Qatar Petroleum International signed a series of agreements to acquire two Singapore chemical joint ventures from Royal Dutch Shell PLC.

The agreements were signed with Shell Eastern Petroleum Pte. Ltd. Terms of the transactions were not discussed.

Completion of the transactions are expected in December in what QPI calls its first downstream acquisition abroad.

Shell will sell its existing shareholdings in two companies to a new joint venture called QPI and Shell Petrochemicals (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.

Through the new venture, QPI and Shell will hold 50% of Petrochemical Corp. of Singapore Pte. Ltd. (PCS) and 30% of The Polyolefin Co. (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. (TPC).

The other shareholders in PCS and TPC are Japanese consortiums led by Sumitomo Chemical Co. Ltd.

PCS owns and operates two naphtha steam crackers totaling 1.9 million tonnes/year of olefins production capacity and is an anchor olefins supplier for the Singapore Petrochemical Complex on Jurong Island.

TPC owns and operates 260,000 tpy of low-density polyethylene capacity in three plants and 600,000 tpy of polypropylene capacity in five plants. These plants receive feedstock from PCS.

The latest joint venture agreement is part of a wider strategic cooperation. QPI and Shell, together with PetroChina, are progressing with joint preliminary studies to assess the viability of building a refinery and petrochemical complex in China.

Shell continues to develop with QPI proposals for a petrochemicals complex in Qatar.