Qatar Petroleum International (QPI) and Shell Eastern Petroleum Pte Ltd have sealed agreements in which QPI takes stakes in two Shell Chemicals joint ventures in Singapore, its first overseas downstream acquisition, the companies said on Wednesday.

Under the deal, to be completed by December, Shell will sell its existing shareholdings in two companies to a new joint venture called QPI and Shell Petrochemicals (Singapore) Pte Ltd (QSPS).

Through the venture, QPI and Shell will effectively hold 50 percent of the Petrochemical Corporation of Singapore (PCS) and 30 percent of The Polyolefin Company (Singapore) Pte Ltd (TPC).

“Qatar Petroleum’s goal is to become a major player in the global energy industry,” said Qatari Minister of Energy and Industry Abdullah al-Attiyah in a statement.

“Qatar is a significant and fast-growing producer of chemical feedstocks. Extending our reach further into petrochemicals in the crucial Asia-Pacific region will help us achieve our ambitious global goals.”

Both Shell and Qatar declined to comment on the deal’s value.

Other shareholders in PCS and TPC are respectively Japan Singapore Petrochemical Co (JSPC) and Nihon Singapore Polyolefin Co (NSPC), both Japanese consortia led by Sumitomo Chemical Co Ltd <4005.T>. Under the new structure, JSPC will continue to hold half of PCS and NSPC will maintain its 70 percent of TPC.

PCS owns and operates two naphtha steam crackers totalling 1.9 million tonnes per year (tpy) of olefins production capacity and is a major supplier of olefins to the Singapore Petrochemical Complex on Jurong island.

TPC owns and operates three plants with a capacity of 260,000 tpy of low-density polyethylene and 600,000 tpy of polyethylene capacity in five plants. The plants source their feedstocks from PCS.

Under the deal, the plants in Singapore will get condensate and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) from Qatar as feedstocks.

Qatar said on Tuesday it would export about 450,000 barrels per day (bpd) of condensates by the end of 2010, equivalent to 25 cargoes a month, up from current exports of around 17 to 18 cargoes a month.

The joint venture deal is part of wider strategic cooperation that Shell has been developing with Qatar. QPI, Shell and PetroChina  are assessing the viability of building a world-scale, integrated refinery and petrochemical manufacturing complex in China.

Shell also continues to develop with QPI proposals for a world-scale petrochemicals complex in Qatar.

on the Other Hand Shell says 2010 global investments down to $28 bln

Royal Dutch Shell CEO Peter Voser said on Wednesday, investments in global projects in 2010 will fall to $28 billion from $30-$32 billion this year.

This was due to lower prices in the market, he told Reuters on the sidelines of a signing ceremony for the joint venture agreement between Qatar Petroleum International (QPI) and Shell Eastern Petroleum Pte Ltd.

“The investments will be $28 billion in 2010. Prices in the market have come down”, Voser said.

He added that demand for oil is slowly improving.

“The slow demand movement is coming back (up) in 2010. It will take some time for demand to come back up,” he said.