Qatar plans to invest approximately 10 billion dollars in its petrochemical sector in the next five years, the Qatari newspaper The Peninsula reported Tuesday. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the MariChem Middle East 2005 conference in the Qatari capital Doha, Hamad Rashid Al Mohannadi, vice chairman and general manager of Qatar Petrochemical Company (Qapco), said that Qatar's petrochemical production is expected to reach around 12 million tonnes a year in the next five years. Over 200 participants from 35 countries were taking part in the two-day conference organized by Turret Group Ltd in cooperation with Qapco. He also noted that the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states as a whole are set to become a petrochemical production hub. The political and economic alliance of the GCC is made up of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. The GCC market is relatively small, hence most of the petrochemical products will be exported to international markets, said Al Mohannadi. "The GCC has been a small player in the petrochemical industry, but in the past few years investments in the petrochemical industry has grown up drastically and the trend is set to continue in the coming five years", he added. The current capacity of major petrochemical producers in the Middle East amounts to over 52 million tonnes, of which over 60 per cent are exported. --SP 1502 Local Time 1202 GMT
