Qatar Petroleum Downstream Ventures is studying several options to develop world scale petrochemical projects using naphtha produced from condensate splitters under development at Ras Laffan Industrial City. The two types of naphtha is to be produced : light naphtha which could be blended with oil or used in petrochemical crackers, heavy naphtha that could be used in the upcoming aromatic complex. Qatar is to produce over 700,000 bpd of condensate by 2012 which will be sourced from North Field gas, Dukhan gas cap, LNG projects and gas pipeline projects. This is a drastic increase as Qatar was producing close to 230,000 bpd in 2006. Condensate offers better solution for the growing demand for fuels and naphtha in the downstream industry as it has less complexity and provides fast options for making profits on transportation fuels and petrochemicals compared to the conventional crude oil refinery. Condensate can be processed either by blending it with crude oil in conventional refinery or can be processed in an independent condensate splitter (refinery).
