Qatar Petroleum has signed a joint venture agreement covering the expansion of its Laffan Refinery condensate spliter at Ras Laffan (OGJ Online, Aug. 19, 2011).
It plans a condensate refinery with capacity of 146,000 b/d similar to the Laffan Refinery 1 (LR1) facility, which started up in September 2009.
LR 2, to be operated by Qatargas Operating Co. Ltd., will process untreated condensate from supergiant North gas field, producing as much as 60,000 b/d of naphtha, 53,000 b/d of jet fuel, 24,000 b/d of gas oil, and 9,000 b/d of LPG. Construction of the $1.5 billion facility is expected to be complete in the second half of 2016.
A diesel hydrotreater now under construction and expected to be commissioned in the second quarter of 2014 will have capacity to process all light gas oil from the LR 1 and LR 2 facilities, yielding ultralow-sulfur diesel.
Ownership under the joint venture agreement is QP, 84%; Total, 10%; Idemitsu and Cosmo, 2% each; and Marubeni and Mitsui, 1% each.
