Saudi Aramco looking at SABIC JV project in Yanbu
23 April 2007 00:01 [Source: ICIS news]
LONDON (ICIS news)--Saudi Aramco is considering a joint venture petrochemicals project with Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) in Yanbu on
Based on liquid and gas feedstocks, the project would take advantage of existing assets at Yanbu and involve an expansion of Aramco’s refinery at the site.
“We think ethane availability will rise to give a reasonable amount of ethane to develop a combined gas/liquids complex,” said the source, who preferred not to be named.
SABIC is in a strong position to be selected as partner for the Yanbu initiative because the project can take advantage of SABIC’s existing resources at the site, he said. SABIC’s Yanbu activities include the Yanpet joint venture with ExxonMobil.
The new Yanbu complex could come on stream in 2014 or 2015, said the source, and involve combining an expansion of the existing Yanbu refinery with additional feedstock from gas plants and petrochemicals complexes.
"Many streams are not being fully optimised,” he said.
The project will have the “same direction” and similar scale as Aramco’s proposed joint venture with Dow Chemical in Ras Tanura, he said.
Aramco and Dow are likely to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the Ras Tanura project within two or three months, enabling a start-up in mid-2012, he added.
The plans to build in Yanbu and Ras Tanura confirm Aramco’s recently adopted strategy to invest in petrochemicals.
The company is building the Rabigh Refining & Petrochemical Co (PetroRabigh) joint venture project with Sumitomo Chemical and is considering the creation of an aromatics stream as part of the proposed Jubail Export Refinery (JER) project with Total.
By: Staff Reporter
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