Qatar Petrochemical Company (Qapco), an Industries Qatar subsidiary, has said its planned $5.5bn Ras Laffan Petrochemical complex is well on track to be commissioned by 2018.Brushing aside reports that it was re-examining the feasibility of expanding the scope of this project, Qapco vice chairman and CEO Mohamed Yousef al-Mulla said, “We are proceeding with the project as per the announced scope; size and shareholding pattern and hopefully our facility will be commissioned on the scheduled date.”Asserting that no changes on the ownership of the project have taken place, he said Total E&P is its partner in Qapco and will have a stake in the new project from Qapco’s share, as per its joint venture agreement.Qatar Petroleum has an 80% equity holding in the project with Qapco taking up the remaining 20% stake. Both QP and Qapco will jointly develop the petrochemical complex, which will feature industry-leading, proprietary technology.The project has a production capacity of 1.4mn metric tonnes of ethylene per annum, 850,000 metric tonnes of high-density polyethylene, 430,000 metric tonnes of linear low-density polyethylene, 760,000 metric tonnes of polypropylene, 83,000 metric tonnes of butadiene and 125,000 metric tonnes of pyrolysis gasoline.The products are to be marketed primarily in high-growth markets in Asia, Africa and Latin America.The complex, which will be built at an estimated investment cost of QR20.1bn, includes a world-scale steam cracker, with the feedstock coming from natural gas projects located in the north of Qatar.“The project will be carried out on a lump-sum turnkey basis and is scheduled for completion in 2018,” a company spokesman said.He said teams from QP and Qapco have been working together for the past few months to plan the development of the project, which will contribute in meeting the continuously growing global demand for various types of petrochemical products.