Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) announced in February 2005 the signing of a contract with Foster Wheeler Energy Ltd, UK, for the third expansion project at Eastern Petrochemical Company (Sharq) in Jubail.

The contract with Foster Wheeler Energy Ltd, UK, is for programme management services. Sharq is a 50:50 joint venture between Sabic and SPDC, a Japanese consortium headed by Mitsubishi.
The expansion of the existing petrochemicals complex will include the following units:  a grassroots 1.3 million tonnes per year (tpy) ethylene cracker, a 800,000 tpy polyethylene plant, a 600,000 tpy ethylene glycol (EG) plant and associated offsites and utilities.
Signing the contract for Sharq was its chairman Dr Abdulaziz S Al-Jarbou and for Foster Wheeler Energy its chairman Steve Davies.
 “After the expansion, Sharq will be one of the world’s largest petrochemical sites,” said Sabic vice-chairman and CEO Mohammad H Al Mady. Production following the expansion is scheduled to begin before the end of 2008.
Sabic is currently the world’s number two in EG production and will become number one upon the completion of several ongoing expansion projects, said a Sabic spokesman.  The company is also third in polyethylene production, and fourth in polyolefins overall.
Currently Sharq produces 1.5 million tonnes of EG annually, among other products.
Sabic recently reported record profits of $3.79 billion for 2004, up 113 per cent over the previous year. Production in all its facilities reached 42.9 million tonnes in 2004, total sales in volume 33.3 million tonnes and sales revenue  $18.3 billion.     
“We are delighted to be involved in this major investment programme to be undertaken by Eastern Petrochemical Company,” said Steve Davies, chairman and chief executive officer, Foster Wheeler Energy Limited, earlier.  “This is yet another significant win for Foster Wheeler and continues our recent success for similar work with our clients in the kingdom.  We are already working as project management consultant with Sabic for its new grassroots petrochemicals facility to be built at Yanbu Industrial City.  This award further underscores the quality of our technical and project management expertise and demonstrates Foster Wheeler’s competitiveness in the market-place.”
 Foster Wheeler’s scope of work as Programme Management Contractor (PMC) will include the preparation of front-end engineering design (FEED) and preparation and issue of invitations to bid for each of the process units, including bid evaluation and award recommendations for engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractors.  Foster Wheeler will also manage all EPC contractors and provide the overall management, coordination and control of all phases of the programme. 
Foster Wheeler Ltd is a global company offering, through its subsidiaries, a broad range of design, engineering, construction, manufacturing, project development and management, research and plant operation services.  It serves the refining, upstream oil and gas, LNG and gas-to-liquids, petrochemical, chemicals, power, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and healthcare industries.  The corporation is based in Hamilton, Bermuda, and its operational headquarters is in Clinton, New Jersey, USA.