Global Outlook

Qatar’s Chemical Industry:

Monetizing Natural Gas
With one of the world’s largest
Hassan E. Alfadala
Process Technology natural gas reserves and a vision to become the
Mahmoud M. El-Halwagi “Gas Capital of the World,” Qatar is monetizing its
Texas A&M Univ.
wealth of resources through the production of
value-added chemicals and energy products.

N
estled on the northeastern coast of the Arabian (QNB) reported that earnings from the hydrocarbon sector
Peninsula, Qatar is largely desert land, punctuated accounted for nearly half of the country’s total govern-
by modern infrastructure and advanced indus- ment revenues in 2014. Qatar’s recoverable reserves of
tries. The small country (4,473 sq. miles) is home to only oil and gas are reported to be 25 billion barrels (bbl) and
400,000 Qatari citizens and 1.9 million expatriates, but it 872 trillion standard ft3 (scf), respectively. This puts Qatar
boasts the highest gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in behind only Russia and Iran in terms of natural gas reserves
the world. and thirteenth in the world in terms of crude oil reserves.
Qatar’s economy is largely based on oil and gas Qatar’s North Field and its geological extension of Iran’s
production and processing. The Qatar National Bank South Pars Field have the world’s largest non-associated gas
reserves (Figure 1). Most of Qatar’s natural gas production
Qatari Gas Field
comes from the North Field, which at current gas production
Qatari Oil Field
South Pars rates is expected to last another century.
Non-Qatari Gas Field
Field Qatar intends to capitalize on its abundant gas resources
Non-Qatari Oil Field
Maritime Border
— and has set a goal to become the “Gas Capital of the
World.” It is pushing to become a primary global energy
supplier and a pioneer in the gas processing industry, and it is
already home to several of the world’s largest gas-processing
facilities. The Qatar National Vision for 2030 (1) is a devel-
North
Field
opment plan that states Qatar’s intention to transform “into
an advanced country by 2030, capable of sustaining its own
Bahrain Ras Laffan development and providing for a high standard of living for
all of its people for generations to come.”

QATAR From modest beginnings

After the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Qatar became a
Dukhan British protectorate in 1916. Before discovery of its vast
Doha energy reserves, Qatar’s economy was largely based on pearl-
Dukhan
Field ing, fishing, and trading. The first oil reserve, the Dukhan
Umm Said Field, was discovered in 1939.
Qatar became the sixth member of the Organization of
u Figure 1. Reserves of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in 1961. The country
Saudi oil and gas support Qatar’s
Arabia economy. is the second-smallest crude oil producer of the 12 OPEC
members. OPEC’s strategies impact energy prices, which

38  www.aiche.org/cep  February 2017  CEP Copyright © 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE)
greatly affect the Qatari oil and gas industry. In 1971, the Gas conversion industries
same year that Qatar declared its independence to become a Qatar has a well-integrated supply chain of gas process-
sovereign constitutional monarchy, the North Field natural ing facilities. Qatar Petroleum (QP) is a state-owned corpora-
gas reserves were discovered off Qatar’s northeast coast. tion that controls all aspects of the upstream and downstream
Because of infrastructure and policy issues, it took about two oil and natural gas sectors, including exploration, production,
decades for the full extent of this reserve to be realized and transport, storage, marketing, and sales. QP operates through
for the massive commercialization efforts to ensue. joint ventures and subsidiaries.
Along with Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and The gas processing industries in Qatar produce a variety
the United Arab Emirates, Qatar is a founding member of the of products, including fuels, chemicals, fertilizers, and petro-
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which seeks to establish chemicals. Figure 3 shows the major gas conversion streams
intergovernmental economic and political partnerships as and their interconnections.
well as cultural, scientific, and environmental cooperation.
GCC members coordinate policies impacting oil and gas pro- Sustainable development
duction, industrial processing, and environmental regulations. Advancing sustainable development is a principal objec-
Most of the oil and gas industry is clustered in the indus- tive for Qatar (4). Several initiatives have been launched
trial cities of Ras Laffan and Umm Said (also known as Mes- to conserve natural resources and mitigate environmental
saied). Umm Said was established in 1949 as a deepwater pollution. Qatar obtains almost all of its fresh water through
tanker terminal and port to export the crude oil received from desalination, which makes water management critical (5).
the Dukhan Field, and Ras Laffan is in close proximity to the To optimize water use, it employs process modification;
North Field. The first oil refinery in Umm Said was built in wastewater treatment, recycle, and reuse; water desalination
1953 to meet domestic needs and to export refined prod- and power infrastructure synergism; and integration of water
ucts. Oil and gas companies, as well as companies related resources and infrastructure (6, 7).
to the industry, began to establish themselves in the decades A large industrial base located in a small area has put
to follow, including the Qatar Fertilizer Company 2,500
(QAFCO), established in 1969; Qatar Petroleum (QP),
Rate of Oil Production/Consumption,

established in 1974; Qatar Steel Co., which started 2,000

production in 1978; and Qatar Petrochemicals Co. Supply
thousand bbl/day

(QAPCO), which started production in 1981.

1,500
Since then, Qatar has become a key global
leader in the hydrocarbon sector. The Pearl and Oryx Net Exports
1,000
plants are the world’s largest gas-to-liquid (GTL)
facilities. Located in Ras Laffan, these plants produce
500
140,000 bbl/day and 34,000 bbl/day, respectively. Consumption
The world’s largest single-site producer of ammo-
0
nia and urea is located in Umm Said. Owned by 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
QAFCO, the facility produces 3.8 million m.t./yr of
Year
ammonia and 5.6 million m.t./yr of urea.
The Qatari companies RasGas and QatarGas 6

(recently merged under the name QatarGas) have

5
constructed 14 liquefied natural gas (LNG) trains
Natural Gas Flows,

with a combined annual production capacity of 4

79 million m.t. This accounts for about a third of the
trillion ft3

global LNG trade, which makes Qatar the world’s larg- 3

est LNG supplier (2). Dry Production

2
Because Qatar’s natural gas resources meet most
of its energy demand, the country exports much of 1 Consumption
its natural gas, crude oil, and petroleum products Vented, Flared, and/or Rejected
(Figure 2). The exports of oil-and-gas-derived fuels, 0
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
products, lubricants, and chemicals account for 98%
of the country’s total export commodities — valued in Year

2015 at about $78 billion. Qatar exports these products p Figure 2. Qatar’s production of natural gas and oil far exceeds its demand, allowing
primarily to Japan, South Korea, and India (3). the small country to monetize much of the difference.

Copyright © 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) CEP  February 2017  www.aiche.org/cep  39
Global Outlook

Qatar’s annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per capita de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup will take place in
at the top of the list globally (8, 9). Various initiatives to Qatar. Various sustainable technologies and infrastructures,
substantially reduce its carbon footprint include carbon including solar lighting and cooling and energy-efficient and
management networks and industrial-city integration reconfigurable stadiums, are being introduced to make it a
(10, 11), dry reforming (12), and flare mitigation (13, 14). carbon-neutral event.
The carbon dioxide recovery (CDR) plant at Qatar Fuel
Additives Co. (QAFAC) in Umm Said utilizes carbon to Moving forward
reduce GHG emissions. It recovers 150,000 m.t/yr of CO2 The recent discoveries of abundant shale gas reserves in
from the fluegases of a methanol process and uses the the U.S. and the current slump in energy prices pose major
captured CO2 to produce an additional 90,000 m.t./yr of challenges to Qatar’s industrial sector. Low oil and gas
methanol (15, 16). prices have caused industrial revenue to decline, and Qatar
Part of Qatar’s vision for the future is to introduce has reported its first budget deficit (estimated to be 0.7% of
10 GW of solar power capacity by 2030 (17, 18). It is big GDP) in 2016, after 15 years of budget surplus (19).
news for the country that the 2022 Fédération Internationale In addition to cutting spending, Qatar plans to
improve operational efficiency to ensure a robust
QatarGas
37
economy. It is taking steps to diversify the industrial
RasGas
70% QP, 30% ExxonMobil portfolio, including adding specialty chemicals, addi-
QatarGas1 79 LNG tives, and polymer processes, as well as building more
65% QP, 10% ExxonMobil, 10% Total, small- and medium-sized plants.
Natural Gas 7.5% Mitsui, 7.5% Marubeni
QatarGas2 Some projects that were at or beyond the front-end
70% QP, 30% ExxonMobil 42 engineering design (FEED) phase have been can-
QatarGas3
68.5% QP, 30% ConocoPhillips, 1.5% Mitsui celled. QP cancelled plans to build two petrochemical
QatarGas4 complexes — called Al-Sejeel and Al-Karaana —
70% QP, 30% Shell
citing economic and competitiveness hurdles (20).
QAFCO Ammonia
Natural Gas (Qatar Fertilizer Co.) 3.8 Ammonia 5.6 Urea
QAFCO Urea
75% Industries Qatar
Sales
Butane 25% Yara Netherland 0.61 MTBE
(to QP refinery)
QAFAC Methanol QAFAC MTBE
(Qatar Fuel Additives Co.) 1.0 Methanol 0.25
Natural Gas 50% Industries Qatar IQ
20% OPIC Middle East Corp.
Qatar Petroleum (QP)

0.75 Methanol
15% International Octane Ltd.
15% LCY Middle East Corp. QAPCO 0.80 LDPE
0.8 Ethylene Polyethylene 0.59 LLDPE
Ethane QAPCO Ethylene
C3/C4
(Qatar Petrochemical Co.) 0.22 Ethylene QVC
75% Industries Qatar 0.07 Sulfur (Qatar Vinyl Co.) 0.37 Caustic Soda
25% Total Petrochemicals France 55% Messaieed 0.36 VCM
Imported Sea Salt Petrochemical Holding Co. 0.18 EDC
Ethylene 32% QAPCO, 13% QP
Pygasoline
Q-Chem SEEF
(Qatar Chemical Co.) Kerosene and 0.1 LAB
Ethane 0.66 HDPE 80% QP
49% Messaieed Reformate
and MDPE 20% United Development Co.
Petrochemical Holding Co. (from QP Refinery)
0.06 1-Hexene
49% Chevron Phillips, 2% QP 0.04 Sulfur Q-Chemll
RLOC Ethylene (Qatar Chemical Co.) 0.35 HDPE and MDPE
(Ras Laffan Olefins Co.) 0.7 51% QP 0.35 NAO
Ethane 49% Chevron Phillips
53% Q-Chemll 1.3 Ethylene
46% QATOFIN QATOFIN LLDPE
1% QP 0.6 (Qatar Fertilizer Co.)
63% QAPCO 0.59 LLDPE
34,000 bbl/day
Natural Gas Oryx GTL 36% Total Petrochemicals France
Synthetic Fuels and Base Oil
51% QP 1% QP
49% Sasol 140,000 bbl/day p Figure 3. Qatar Petroleum (QP) operates through a network
Synthetic Fuels and Base Oil of subsidiaries and joint ventures. Each block gives the name of
Pearl GTL
Natural Gas Operated by Shell through 120,000 bbl/day
the company, its owners, and their percentage ownership. The
a development and production NGL and Ethane primary feedstocks and products are shown as inputs to and
sharing agreement with QP outputs from the blocks. Unless stated otherwise, the production
rates are given in million m.t. per year.

40  www.aiche.org/cep  February 2017  CEP Copyright © 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE)
Education and research Center (TEES GFRC) (http://gfrc.tamu.edu). The Mary Kay
Students interested in a chemical engineering education O’Connor Process Safety Center at Qatar, at Texas A&M
can choose from two Accreditation Board for Engineering Univ. at Qatar (http://process-safety.tamu.edu/), focuses on
and Technology (ABET)-accredited chemical engineering process safety research, especially for the gas industries.
departments at Qatar Univ. and Texas A&M Univ. at Qatar. The Qatar Foundation supports chemical engineering
Both departments have AIChE student chapters. research and other national priority areas through the Qatar
In addition to research carried out by faculty and their National Research Fund (www.qnrf.org), as well as through
staff, two research centers are dedicated to serving the gas specialized institutions such as the Qatar Science and
industry: the Gas Processing Center (GPC) at Qatar Univ. Technology Park (QSTP) (www.qstp.org.qa) and the Qatar
(http://gpc.qu.edu.qa/offices/research/gpc) and Texas A&M Environmental and Energy Research Institute (QEERI)
Engineering Experiment Station Gas and Fuels Research (www.qeeri.org.qa). CEP

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HASSAN E. ALFADALA, PhD, is the Managing Director of Process Technology — a MAHMOUD M. EL-HALWAGI, PhD, holds the McFerrin Professorship at the Artie
Qatar-based company that offers consulting and other technical services McFerrin Dept. of Chemical Engineering, Texas A&M Univ., and is the Man-
to the process industries (Email: [email protected]). He has 23 years aging Director of the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station Gas and
of experience in process design and in the chemical, petrochemical, gas Fuels Research Center (Phone: (979) 845-3484; Email: el-halwagi@tamu.
processing, and environmental industries. He served as the head of the edu). His main research area is sustainable design of industrial systems
Chemical Engineering Dept. and the Dean of Engineering at Qatar Univ. and through process integration. He has published more than 250 refereed
is the Founding Director of Qatar Univ.’s Gas Processing Center. He has also papers and 85 book chapters. He has also authored three textbooks and
held management positions at Qatari Diar Investment Co. He received a BS coedited six books. He received a PhD from the Univ. of California, Los
in natural gas engineering and an MS in chemical engineering from Texas Angeles and an MS and BS from Cairo Univ., all in chemical engineering.
A&M University-Kingsville, and a PhD in chemical engineering from the He is a Fellow of AIChE.
Univ. of South Florida.

Copyright © 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) CEP  February 2017  www.aiche.org/cep  41