Norway's Kvaerner has won the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract on a new plant at the Saudi International Petrochemical Company (SIPC) complex in Jubail.

The EPC contract calls for the construction of butanediol (BDO) and maleic anhydride plants set to go on stream by 2005.

SIPC and its partners in the Gulf Advanced Chemical Industries Company (Gacic) have signed joint venture, technology transfer and technical agreements with Huntsman Corporation and KPT to form a new manufacturing venture for the production of petrochemicals.

The joint venture in Al Jubail Industrial City will produce up to 7,000 tonnes per year of maleic anhydride (Mah) and 50,000 tonnes per year of BDO. It will use Huntsman Corporation's proprietary butane-to-maleic anhydride (Mah) technology to convert n-butane, supplied by Saudi Aramco, to maleic anhydride.

Mah will then be used as a feedstock for the production of BDO and tetrahydrofuran (THF) via Kvaerner's Mah-to-BDO technology.

BDO is one of the world's fastest growing chemicals used in the production of thermoplastic polyurethanes, elastic fibres, pharmaceuticals, solvents, plant protection, coatings and electronic chemicals. Mah is used primarily in unsaturated polyester resins and for the manufacture of lube oil additives, agriculture and paper sizing chemicals, artificial sweeteners, detergents and automotive body parts.

Last year, SIPC awarded the ECP contract for a methanol plant, also located at the complex, to Japan's Chiyoda Corp and the local Chiyoda Petrostar.