Business & Finance Club Magazine - Oil & Gas Sector - KUWAIT CITY: Qurain Petrochemicals Industries Company (QPIC) today announced today the establishment of United Petrochemical Company (UPC). UPC is a joint venture between Qurain Petrochemical Industries Company which holds 90 percent of the company and United Industries Company, holding 10 percent.

UPC has received all required licenses from the Public Authority for Industry for the purpose of establishing PTA and PET plants in Kuwait. The project will become Kuwait’s first PTA/PET production plant.

PTA is used in the production of such products such as film, fiber, with the majority of the production used for PET production. The production of PET is then mainly used in the making of plastic water bottles and food packaging. Annual global consumption of PTA is expected to reach 60 million tones by 2015, from 38 million tonnes in 2008.

The world-scale petrochemical plants are estimated to cost $700 million and will utilize Paraxylene (PX) produced by the Kuwait Aromatics Company, in which Qurain owns 20 percent. the Kuwait Paraxylene plant began production in December of 2009 and produces 820,000 tonnes of Paraxylene per annum.

“The PTA/PET project is part of QPIC’s long term strategy focused on developing downstream petrochemical projects in the GCC and MENA regions and utilizing its assets to enhance returns to shareholders” concluded Sheikh Mubarak Abdullah Al Mubarak Al Sabah, Chairman of Qurain.

Qurain Petrochemical Industries Company (QPIC) was established by Amiri Decree in 2004 with a share capital of KD 110 million.

QPIC is focussed on investing directly and indirectly in companies producing, trading and storing chemical and petrochemical products and related by-products, including but not limited to Benzene, Para-Xylene, Light Naphtha, Hydrogen, Light Ends, Heavy aromatics, Styrene, Ethylene Glycol, Ethane and Methanol.

Headquartered in Kuwait, QPIC is engaged in several products including EQUATE, Olefins II, Aromatics and Styrene in Kuwait, and Algerian Methanol, and is actively investigating local, regional, and international opportunities as part of is long-term strategy. United industries Company, a KIPCO Group company, is a major shareholder in QPIC.