Qatar Petroleum (QP) has announced plans to build a petrochemicals complex at Ras Laffan Industrial City.

QP says in a statement that it has invited international energy companies to submit partnership proposals for the development of the project.

The petrochemicals facility will include an ethane cracker with a capacity of more than 1.6 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of ethylene, as well as derivative plants.

Front-end engineering and design (feed) for the project, expected to be operational by 2025, “should commence shortly”, the QP statement says.

The feedstock for the petchem complex will be ethane, produced primarily from the new North Field LNG expansion project that will produce an additional 23 mtpa of LNG, as well as from existing gas projects producing ethane.