Saudi Polyolefins to start up new PP line on 16 May

06 May 2009 11:13  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--Saudi Polyolefins Co expects to start up its new 270,000 tonne/year polypropylene (PP) line at Al-Jubail on 16 May, more than two months later than originally planned, a source close to the company said on Wednesday.

"The line will begin producing off-spec PP on 16 May but commercial production will begin only on 20 May," the source said.

The company had planned to start up the new line at the end of February. But there have been persistent delays due to problems with linking the new line to the existing facility, the source said.

The company operates a 450,000 tonne/year PP plant and a propane dehydrogenation (PDH) unit of the same capacity at Al-Jubail.

"The new line, which will produce only homopolymer PP, was expected to run at 60-70% operating rate initially, and will gradually be ramped up to full capacity," the source said.

Propylene feedstock for the additional PP line would be procured from Saudi Ethylene and Polyethylene Co’s (SEPC) 1m tonne/year cracker, which started up at Al-Jubail late last year.

Saudi Polyolefins is a joint venture between Tasnee (National Industrialisation Co) and LyondellBasell. SEPC is a joint venture between Sahara Olefins Co (24.4%), Tasnee (50.6%) and LyondellBasell (25%).

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By: Prema Viswanathan
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