Qatar Petroleum International Acquires First Downstream Overseas Assets

The agreements were signed by His Excellency Abdulla bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy and Industry, and Mr. Peter Voser, Chief Executive Officer of Royal Dutch Shell plc.  The signing was witnessed by Mr. S. Iswaran, Singapore Senior Minister of State for Trade & Industry and Education, as well as Mr. Nasser Al-Jaidah, Chief Executive Officer of Qatar Petroleum International and Mr. Ben van Beurden, Executive Vice President Shell Chemicals.

The agreements mark the first downstream acquisition by Qatar Petroleum International abroad. Qatar Petroleum International and Shell entered into a strategic partnership in 2007 aimed at identifying and developing international projects of mutual interest throughout the energy value chain.

Under the agreements signed today, Shell will sell its existing shareholdings in two companies to a new joint venture called QPI and Shell Petrochemicals (Singapore) Pte Ltd (QSPS).  Through the new venture, Qatar Petroleum International and Shell will then effectively hold 50 per cent of the Petrochemical Corporation of Singapore (Pte) Ltd (PCS) and 30 per cent of The Polyolefin Company (Singapore) Pte Ltd (TPC).  The other shareholders in PCS and TPC are respectively, JSPC and NSPC, both Japanese consortia led by Sumitomo Chemical Company, Limited.  Completion of the transaction is in December 2009.

Shell is building two of the largest energy projects in the world with Qatar Petroleum in Ras Laffan Industrial City in Qatar.  Pearl Gas to Liquids (GTL) is the largest project ever launched in Qatar.  It will be the world’s largest GTL plant and will cement Qatar’s place as the GTL capital of the world. The Qatargas 4 LNG project is being developed by Qatargas on behalf of shareholders QP and Shell (30 per cent).  The project combines Shell’s global leadership amongst private energy companies in LNG with Qatar’s vision to become the world’s largest LNG supplier.

PetrolWorld 111109