Paris, 11 April - Neftegaz.RU. During the official visit to Paris by Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Aramco and Total signed a memorandum of understanding to build a giant petrochemical complex in Jubail, Saudi Arabia.
The complex will be integrated downstream of the SATORP refinery, a joint venture between Saudi Aramco (62.5%) and Total (37.5%) in Jubail, in a move designed to fully exploit operational synergies. This world-class refinery, whose capacity increased from 400,000-barrel-per-day at its start-up in 2014 to 440,000-barrel-per-day today, is recognized as being one of the most efficient in the world.
Located next to the SATORP refinery in the same industrial area, the complex will comprise a world-size mixed-feed steam cracker (50% ethane and refinery off-gas) with a capacity of 1.5 million tons per year of ethylene and related high-added-value petrochemical units.
The project will represent an investment of around $5 billion. The 2 partners are planning to start the front-end engineering and design (FEED) in the 3rd quarter of 2018.
The cracker will feed other petrochemical and specialty chemical plants representing an overall amount of $4 billion investment by 3rd party investors. In total, $9 billion will be invested, creating 8,000 local direct and indirect jobs. The project will produce more than 2.7 million metric tons of high value chemicals.