Turkey’s MetCap Energy Investments announced Monday plans for a 1 million mt/yr polyethylene and polypropylene plant in Turkey to be developed as a 50-50 joint venture with Fusion Dynamics of Qatar.
According to MetCap, the plant is to be built at Enez on Turkey’s European Aegean coast and will use as feedstock natural gas supplied both from the Turkey-Greece gas pipeline 60 km to the north as well as LNG, propylene and ethylene imported through a new import terminal to be constructed as part of the project.
The planned $4 billion plant will have the capacity to convert 2.1 Bcm/year of natural gas to 2.6 Bcm/year of methanol, which in turn will be converted to 1 million mt/year of light olefins, to be converted into 400,000 mt of polyethylene (CLDPE, HDPE and LDPE) and 590,000 mt of polypropylene (homo-polymer, random co-polymer and impact co-polymer).
Power for the plant will be supplied by a new 785 MW CCGT plant being constructed by MetCap subsidiary Verbena Energy at Kirklareli to the north of the planned petrochemical plant and which is being funded separately.
Of the estimated $4 billion construction cost for the petrochemical plant, 30% will be met by the two partners, with the remaining 70% coming from commercial loans.
The project will be constructed on land belonging to the Turkish treasury and has already been granted investment incentives by the ministry for economy, including exemption from VAT and customs duties and some tax relief.
Officials from MetCap weren’t immediately available Monday to confirm when they expect construction to start and for the plant to begin operations.