Foster Wheeler Energy Limited has been awarded the project management services contract by Saudi International Petrochemical Company (Sipchem) for its acetyls complex to be built at Jubail Industrial City.

The terms of the award were not disclosed.
“Foster Wheeler is delighted to be awarded this contract by Sipchem, adding to our substantial track record of such projects and demonstrating that Foster Wheeler is the project management services contractor of choice for the industry,” said Steve Davies, chairman and chief executive officer of Foster Wheeler Energy Limited, a UK subsidiary of Foster Wheeler Limited.
“We look forward to assisting Sipchem in achieving a safe, environmentally sound, efficient, and reliable plant and in contributing to the further development of Saudi industries.”
“The acetyls complex will provide further growth opportunities for Sipchem, representing our vision for developing investments in the petrochemical industry to produce value-added products, serving both Saudi and regional needs,” said Ahmed Al-Ohali, president of Sipchem.
“We selected Foster Wheeler as the company with the best capability and personnel to work with us in the development and management of this important project.”
Earlier this year Sipchem signed an interim agreement with Eastman Chemical Company for its proprietary acetyl technology. The agreement also calls on Eastman to provide technical support and marketing of all acetic anhydride produced at the facility. Sipchem will use most of the acetic acid it produces for the manufacture of vinyl acetate monomer (VAM) with Dupont technology.
The complex will produce 460,000 tonnes per year (tpy) of acetic acid and 300,000 tpy of vinyl acetate monomer. Phase I of the complex, comprising methanol and butanediol plants, is currently under construction.
Foster Wheeler will work as part of an Integrated Project Management Team (IPMT) together with Sipchem. The role of the IPMT is to develop and issue bid packages for the engineering and construction of the acetyls complex and its associated utilities and offsites. Once the projects are awarded, the IPMT will manage the engineering and construction activities on behalf of Sipchem and its affiliates.
In the early phase of the project, the IPMT will support the project planning and development team of Sipchem to complete the feasibility study, obtain approvals and establish company formations.
The methanol plant, which is now under construction, has a design capacity of 1 million tonnes per year (tpy) and is being developed by Sipchem under its affiliated company named International Methanol Company, a joint venture between Sipchem (65 per cent) and a Japanese consortium, Japan Arabia Methanol Company (35 per cent). The Japanese consortium has Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Daicel and Lino as constituents.
The plant is based on the ICI-Casale technology and the lump sum turnkey EPC contractor is Chiyoda of Japan.  It is scheduled to begin commercial production at the end of 2004.
The butanediol plant, which will be ready by the end of 2005, has been designed for a capacity of 75,000 tpy (with an additional facility to produce tetrahyudrofuran). Sipchem is developing the plant under its affiliated company named Gulf Advanced Chemical Industries Company (Gacic), a joint venture with Davy Process Technology, Huntsman, Al Babtain and Al Masri.  Sipchem is the main equity partner.
Gacic has signed a $47 million loan facility for its butanediol project. The loan is underwritten by Saudi Hollandi Bank.
The bank loan represents the second part of the financing for Gacic. Abdulrahman Al Saif, president of Gacic, said: “We are extremely pleased with the strong commitment and support demonstrated by Saudi Hollandi Bank in concluding this financing arrangement. It represents an important milestone in the development of our project. Construction is progressing ahead of schedule and we look forward to commencing commercial operations in January, 2005.