Basell Achieves 20 Million Tons Milestone in Spheripol PP Process with New License in Qatar


08 Oct 2007

October 8, 2007 - Qatar Petroleum, a global leader in the energy sector, has selected Basell's Spheripol technology for a new 700 KT per year polypropylene plant that will be built in Mesaieed, Qatar, as part of the Qatar Petrochemical Complex project. The unit will be operated by a joint venture between Qatar Petroleum and Honam Petrochemical of Korea. Start-up is expected in 2011.

"With this new license we have passed the milestone of 20 million tonnes of licensed capacity for our Spheripol process, which is the most widely used polypropylene technology in the world," Just Jansz, president of Basell's Technology Business, said at a signing ceremony in Qatar's capital city of Doha. "The new project further affirms the superior product range and cost-effectiveness of the Spheripol process in the highly competitive polypropylene market."

He added: "There are Spheripol plants in 35 countries. Through the refinement of bulk liquid and gas-phase polymerization reactors this technology includes features that reduce both resource consumption and emissions from the process."

This is the second license sold by Basell in Qatar this year. A Lupotech T low density polyethylene license was recently granted to QAPCO for a new plant in Mesaieed.

"The Middle East requires world-scale plants to take full advantage of the abundant availability of feedstock for petrochemicals," Jansz said. "Scale is one of the advantages offered by Basell's technologies in combination with demonstrated product capability, thus offering excellent manufacturing economics and a broad range of high quality products."

In addition to the Spheripol and Lupotech T processes, Basell's portfolio of licensed technologies and associated technical services is comprised of:

o Spherizone - latest generation polypropylene technology based on new multi-zone circulating reactor technology

o Spherilene - advanced swing gas phase process for the production of LLDPE, MDPE and HDPE

o Hostalen - leading low-pressure slurry process for the production of multi-modal HDPE

o Lupotech T - leading high pressure tubular reactor process for the production of LDPE and EVA copolymers

o Metocene PP - technology for the production of specialty polypropylene products using single-site catalyst systems

Basell is the global leader in polyolefins technology, production and marketing. It is the largest producer of polypropylene and advanced polyolefin products; a leading supplier of polyethylene and catalysts, and the industry leader in licensing polypropylene and polyethylene processes, including providing technical services for its proprietary technologies. Basell, together with its joint ventures, has manufacturing facilities in 19 countries and sells products in more than 120 countries. Additional information about Basell is available at basell.com.

For more information contact

Waldemar Oldenburger
Basell Corporate Communications
+49 69 305 854 59
waldemar.oldenburger@basell.com
or please visit basell.com/content/newsroom

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