France's Total has entered talks with Qatar to build a petrochemical plant in the gas-rich Arab country, a spokesman for Total told Reuters on Thursday.

"We are in discussions with Qatar about the project," a spokesman said. "But they are still in a very early stage."

It was not immediately clear whether the talks were related to the $6 billion petrochemical complex that Qatar was planning to build in Ras Laffan, where it is also working with ExxonMobil.