
Haldia Petrochemical tenders to sell to Qatar in the second half of the year
Qatar Petroleum has set a target of selling its Haldias to China for the second consecutive year, and the first time in four years.
Haldia, the oldest operating oil company in the world, will have a production capacity of about 1 million barrels a day, but it has been working to diversify its portfolio and to expand into other sectors, according to its CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors, Sheikh Abdullah Bin Mohammed Al Thani.
Honduras, the largest producer of natural gas in the country, has also expressed interest in buying Haldies.
The announcement comes just a few weeks after Qatar said it was exploring opportunities to sell its oil and gas assets in the Gulf states and China, and it was reported in November that Haldi’s CEO, Ahmad Al Dohani, is preparing to make a bid for China.
The first Haldion was sold to Qatar’s state-owned oil company, Al Jazeera reported.
Haldialias are used in heating and cooling systems in refrigerators, washing machines, car engines and other machines.
The sale of Haldis to China has been in the pipeline for some time, but Haldiah was the first company to get a green light for sale, according a senior company official who spoke to Reuters.
The company, which is based in the northern city of Doha, is also the operator of the Gulf of Oman, a vast energy expanse with the potential to generate up to $US1 trillion (NZ$1.4 trillion) of global gas and oil.
The Qatar-China deal is a sign of the emerging importance of the Persian Gulf for the global oil industry.
Qatar is the world’s third-largest producer of oil and is a major investor in many other oil and energy companies, including Exxon Mobil and Chevron.