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Qatar starts prequalification for salt production project

9 March 2026

 

Qatar Petrochemical Company (Qapco) has started the prequalification process for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of a project to build a salt production plant in Qatar.

Qapco is an 80:20 joint venture of Industries Qatar and France’s TotalEnergies. QatarEnergy, in turn, owns the majority 51% stake in Industries Qatar.

Qapco has undertaken the salt production project jointly with Qatar Salt Products Company (QSalt). It has set a deadline of 9 March for contractors to express interest in participating in the prequalification round, and 15 April for the submission of prequalification documents.

MEED understands the salt production project by Qapco and QSalt is the same facility QatarEnergy that had previously been planning to build in the Um Al-Houl area of Qatar.

QatarEnergy launched the Umm Al-Houl salt production project in September 2024. At the time, it also announced the signing of a tripartite memorandum of understanding between its subsidiary Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding Company (MPHC), Qatar Industrial Manufacturing Company (QIMC) and Turkiye’s Atlas Yatirim Planlama, to create QSalt.

The project, which was estimated to cost $275m, was to be built by the newly created QSalt.

MPHC is the largest shareholder in QSalt with a 40% stake, while QIMC and Atlas Yatirim Planlama each hold 30% stakes, QatarEnergy said in a statement on 23 September 2024.

Upon completion of the salt production plant in Um Al-Houl, QatarEnergy subsidiary Qatar Petrochemical Company (Qapco) and MPHC subsidiary Qatar Vinyl Company (QVC) were to operate the facility.

MPHC, in which QatarEnergy holds the majority 57.85% stake, owns a 55.2% stake in QVC.

ALSO READ: Qatar takes a quantum leap in fulfilling LNG ambitions

The new plant in Um Al-Houl was planned to produce industrial salts essential for the petrochemicals industry, along with bromine, potassium chlorides and demineralised water, which were to be produced at a later stage, “contributing to product diversification and economic growth”, QatarEnergy said previously.

The plant was planned to have a production capacity of 1 million tonnes a year. It would have significantly reduced Qatar’s “reliance on imported raw materials, addressing the current import of approximately 850,000 tonnes of table and industrial salts annually”.

The facility was designed to utilise wastewater from reverse osmosis desalination units, transforming waste from desalination processes into a valuable resource.

QSalt, the new joint-venture company, and the planned industrial salts project were to receive support from QatarEnergy’s Tawteen localisation programme, the state energy enterprise said previously.

QatarEnergy started a tendering exercise for front-end engineering and design (feed) for the proposed salt production plant project last year.

Contractors had submitted proposals to QatarEnergy for feed works on the project by 29 May, MEED previously reported.

However, following the submission of feed proposals, there was no communication from the project operator to bidders for months. QatarEnergy eventually communicated its decision to cancel the tendering process to bidders in October, MEED previously reported.

The floating of the prequalification notice by Qapco and QSalt for the EPC tendering phase of the salt production plant marks a revival of the project.

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Indrajit Sen

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