(El Khabar) -- Qatar Petroleum (QP) has joined the Franco-Algerian partnership of France's Total and Algeria's Sonatrach in a joint venture project to construct the ethane cracker in Arzew, western Algeria.
The US$5 billion project encompasses the construction of an ethane cracker and three product lines.
Initially, Sonatrach awarded a contract to Total to construct the ethane cracker where Total had a controlling 51% stake of the project and Algeria's Sonatrach 49%. However new governmental regulations obliging local partners to control the majority of any JV project with foreign partners have forced the French oil giant to relinquish some of its share.