Qatar’s Tasweeq To Slash Condensate Exports In 2016

Qatar’s state oil marketer Tasweeq expects to cut deodorised field condensate (DFC) exports in 2016 by 30 per cent from current levels as domestic consumption increases after a new splitter comes online, a senior company official said.

Qatari condensate exports have already been facing competition from U.S. light oil shipments but its new 146,000 barrels-per-day splitter, set to start up in late 2016, should help the Gulf state soak up some of its DFC supplies at home.

Tasweeq will cut DFC exports to 350,000 barrels per day (bpd) from the current levels of 500,000 bpd when the splitter is ready, Ibrahim Al Sulaiti, marketing director of condensate at Tasweeq, said at an industry conference on Wednesday.

Output of full-range naphtha will double with the start of the new condensate splitter, Al Sulaiti said, part of which would then be used as feedstock for new gasoline and aromatics units that are set to come online in late 2017.

Exports of naphtha, a petrochemical feedstock, will be cut to less than six million tonnes per year (tpy) by 2019, from about eight million tpy currently.

Qatar, one of the top exporters of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in the world, will also be diverting five million tpy from its 11 million tpy of LPG exports to a joint venture petrochemical project in Vietnam, Al Sulaiti said.