S. Arabia's Yanbu chosen for crude to chemicals complex

- Saudi Arabia, SABIC pick Red Sea port city to convert crude oil to chemicals using ‘economically viable, innovative configuration’

home > Refining/Petro Chemistry, Companies, Middle East-Africa 02.11.2018 14:05 Hale Türkeş

S. Arabia's Yanbu chosen for crude to chemicals complex

Saudi Aramco and SABIC – a leading manufacturer of diversified chemicals based in Riyadh – chose Yanbu on the west coast of Saudi Arabia as the site for the development of an integrated industrial complex to convert crude oil to chemicals (COTC), the companies announced Thursday.

'The complex will utilize an economically viable, innovative configuration to convert crude oil to chemicals. This process is unprecedented in the industry,' a statement read.

The COTC complex is expected to process 400,000 barrels per day of crude oil, which will produce approximately 9 million tons of chemicals and base oils annually. The complex is expected to start operations in 2025.

An estimated 30,000 direct and indirect jobs are envisioned at the complex, further stimulating the Kingdom's economic diversification efforts, the statement added. By 2030, the COTC complex is anticipated to have a 1.5 percent impact on the Kingdom’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), with investments being shared equally by both companies.

According to the press release, consistent with the Kingdom's Vision 2030 economic transformation program, this project will support the creation of a world-leading downstream sector in Saudi Arabia, built on four key drivers:

  1. Maximizing value from the Kingdom’s crude oil production via integration across the hydrocarbon chain;
  2. Enabling the creation of conversion industries to produce semi-finished and finished goods to help diversify the economy;
  3. Developing advanced technologies and innovation;
  4. Enabling sustainable development in alignment with the Kingdom's National Transformation Program.

The two companies had signed a memorandum of understanding in November 2016 to develop a COTC complex in Saudi Arabia.

Earlier this year, Saudi Aramco and SABIC awarded the Project Management and Front End Engineering to Britain's Wood and Houston-based KBR.

'The partners are working on finalizing the selection of Leading Edge Technologies to complement their technologies,' the statement added.

By Hale Turkes

Anadolu Agency

energy@aa.com.tr

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