Tasnee Petchem mulls Saudi acetic acid project

16 June 2008 20:15  [Source: ICIS news]

BAHRAIN (ICIS news)--Tasnee Petrochemicals is studying an investment in acetic acid in Saudi Arabia, a senior company executive said on Monday.

“This [acetic acid] is one of the projects that we are evaluating,” said Moayyed Al-Qurtas, vice chairman and chief executive officer of Tasnee, on the sidelines of the Middle East Petrochemicals 2008 conference.

Qurtas declined to give more details.

Speaking at the conference, Al-Qurtas highlighted that one of Tasnee’s top five priorities was moving downstream to add value.

“In plastics, we are putting up facilities for geo-membranes, biaxially oriented polypropylene (BOPP) film, and compounds for pipes,” he said.

“These are important and complementary to our main activity,” he added.

“We have the world’s largest propane dehydrogenation (PDH)/polypropylene (PP) unit and we are building a world scale cracker that will start in the next few months. That trend will continue,” he said.

Tasnee is one of the investors in Saudi Ethylene and Polyethylene Co (SEPC), a 1m tonnes/year cracker and derivatives project. It is also a partner in Al-Waha Petrochemical Co.

Tasnee’s other priorities include acquisitions and international alliances in related fields, domestic growth and integration with existing businesses, said Al-Qurtas.

“We recently announced a joint venture for acrylic acid with Rohm & Haas. That will add value and help us diversify,” he said.

Other priorities for Tasnee include improving its technological position and research and development (R&D) and diversifying in other promising fields, Qurtas said.

“We are looking at opportunities in minerals and power,” he added.

The Middle East Petrochemicals 2008 conference, organised by MEED, concludes on Tuesday.

For more on acetic acid visit ICIS chemical intelligence
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By: Malini Hariharan
+65 6780 4359

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