Sharq secures Riyal9.1bn loan for Jubail expansion

22 May 2006 03:20  [Source: ICIS news]

RIYADH (ICIS news)--Saudi Arabia's Eastern Petrochemical Company (Sharq) has secured loans totalling Riyal9.11bn ($2.43bn/Euro1.9bn) for the third expansion of its Jubail petrochemical complex, a Sabic spokesman said on Sunday.

The loans were raised from Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) as well as local and international commercial banks.

The project is expected to go on stream in the second half of 2008, the spokesman added. ICIS news had earlier reported that the project would start up earlier, in the second quarter of 2008. No information was available about the reasons for the delay.

The project will produce 1.3m tonne/year of ethylene, 700,000 tonne/year of monoethylene glycol (MEG), 400,000 tonne/year of high density polyethylene (hdPE) and 400,000 tonne/year of linear low density PE (lldPE).

Sharq is a 50:50 joint venture between Sabic and Saudi Petrochemical Development Corp (SPDC), a Japanese consortium led by the Mitsubishi group and supported by the Japanese government.

Stone & Webster will undertake the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) for the new ethylene plant. Foster Wheeler Energy will construct the utilities and offsite facilities for the project. Linde-KCA-Dresden will take charge of the EPC work on the lldPE and hdPE plants.

With the expansion of the Sharq joint venture, Sabic will become the world’s largest producer of MEG, with a total capacity exceeding 4.9m tonne/year.

Sharq currently operates a 1.35m tonne/year MEG plant at Jubail. Sabic also has an 800,000 tonne/year plant at Yanbu, through Yanpet, its joint venture with ExxonMobil Chemical. The latest addition to Sabic’s MEG capacity was a 630,000 tonne/year plant which started up last month at Jubail.

Sharq also operates a 1.3m tonne/year cracker and 750,000 tonne/year lldPE plant at Jubail.

Production at the Sharq complex began in 1985. The first expansion project was completed in 1993 and the second in 2001.

Anuradha Rao in Dubai contributed to this article

By: Prema Viswanathan
+65 6780 4359

< previous article(VIDEO - ICIS news Europe Lunchtime Bulletin 27 October 2009)

For the latest chemical news, data and analysis that directly impacts your business sign up for a free trial to ICIS news - the breaking online news service for the global chemical industry.

Get the facts and analysis behind the headlines from our market leading weekly magazine: sign up to a free trial to ICIS Chemical Business.

Printer Friendly