One natural gas partnership between Shell and Qatar Petroleum has started bringing gas-to-liquids base stocks to the lubricants industry. Another could bring chemical building blocks used to make polyalphaolefins.
On Sunday the companies signed a heads of agreement document setting out the scope and commercial principles of a joint venture petrochemicals complex in Ras Laffan Industrial City, Qatar. The project would use natural gas from a Qatar field to produce 300,000 metric tons per year of linear alpha olefins, as well as 1.5 million t/y of mono-ethylene glycol. Officials said output from the plant would be sold mostly in Asia.
LAOs are chains of alpha olefins and can be various lengths. The joint venture plant would make LAOs ranging from C4 (a chain of 4 alpha olefins) to C24. Different lengths of LAOs can be used for different purposes but C10, or decene, can be used to make PAO base stocks, as well as other products.
It is safe to assume, therefore, that the Qatar Petroleum-Shell plant would make some LAOs that could go to make PAOs. A Shell spokesman said, though, that it is too early to speculate about how much decene would be produced.
The heads of agreement signing does not necessarily mean that the complex will come to fruition. Final investment decisions from both companies will be needed before it is clear that the project is going forward. At present there is no timeline for such decisions.
As currently contemplated, Qatar Petroleum would own 80 percent of the petrochemical complex, Shell 20 percent. The companies also share ownership of the Pearl GTL plant – also located in Ras Laffan. That plant includes a base oil plant that began producing earlier this year.