Aramco, Sumitomo sign $2.5bn deal
Project Name: Rabigh Refining and Petrochemical complex
Project Location: Rabigh, Saudi Arabia
Client: Saudi Aramco, Sumitomo Chemical Company
Contact Details: Saad F Al-Dosari, Acting Executive Director
Rabigh Development Project
Saudi Arabian Oil Co (Saudi Aramco)
PO Box 5000, Dhahran 31311 Saudi Arabia
Phone: +9663 872 0115
Fax No: +9663 873 8190
Project Details:
The Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) and Sumitomo Chemical Company have signed an agreement to become joint venture partners in the development of a large, integrated refining and petrochemical complex in the Red Sea town of Rabigh, on the Kingdom’s west coast.
The SR9.5 billion ($2.53 billion) new company will be called the Rabigh Refining and Petrochemical Company (Petro-Rabigh).
The joint venture agreement follows the successful completion of a joint feasibility study, during which both companies performed front-end engineering design (FEED) and verified the viability of the project.
The project has moved to an early phase of execution with the recent award of multiple engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts. When completed in late 2008, the Rabigh Project will be one of the largest integrated refining and petrochemical projects ever to be built at one time. A total of 2.4 million tonnes of petrochemical solids and liquids, along with large volumes of gasoline and other refined products, will be produced. Also, this project has created third-party investment opportunities in Saudi Arabia’s private sector for utilities and other related infrastructure.
Saudi Aramco will supply the Rabigh Project with crude oil, ethane and butane and will market the refined products produced by the Rabigh Project. Sumitomo Chemical will provide its extensive and proprietary petrochemical technology and marketing base to the venture. The following olefin derivative units are included in the project configuration:
• Sumitomo’s proprietary Easy Processing Polyethylene (EPPE) unit;
• An LLDPE unit;
• An HDPE unit;
• Two polypropylene units, producing a full range of polypropylene polymers - homopolymer, block copolymer, random and terpolymer;
• A propylene oxide unit utilising Sumitomo’s proprietary technology;
• A Mono-Ethylene Glycol (MEG) unit; and
• A Butene-1 unit.
Construction of the project will commence during the first quarter of 2006.
Petchem FEED offers under review
Project Name: Petrochemicals, power and water complex
Project Location: Sitra, Bahrain
Client: Kuwait Finance House (KFH).
Contact Details: Osama Alkhajah, Corporate Finance Manager
Kuwait Finance House (KFH), PO Box 2066
Manama Bahrain
Phone: +973 17 221 672/666
Fax: +973 17 221 600
Project Details:
Jacobs Engineering of the US is evaluating the financial offers for the five combined front-end engineering and design (FEED) and engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts on the BD565.5 million ($1.5 billion) integrated petrochemicals, power and water complex in the preferred site of Sitra.
The five contractors that are invited are Shaw International of the US for the ethane cracker, Uhde of Germany for the ethylene dichloride (EDC) and caustic soda units, Chicago Bridge & Iron of the US for the gas separation unit, General Electric (GE) of the US for the power island, and Weir International of the UK for the desalination part.
Evaluation is due to be completed by end of August. The project is being developed by Kuwait Finance House (KFH).
Bapco, Neste sign lube base plant contract
Project Name: Lubricant base oil manufacturing facility
Project Location: Bapco refinery, Sitra, Bahrain
Client: Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco)
Contact Details: Abdulkarim Al Sayed,
General Manager - Major engineering projects
Bahrain Petroleum Co (Bapco) PO Box 25555 Awali Bahrain
Phone: +973 17 755 550
Fax: +083 18 753 230
Project Details:
An agreement was recently signed between Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco) and Finnish company Neste Oil to work together on a BD65.7 million ($175 million) project to design, build, and operate a lubricant base oil manufacturing facility in Bahrain.
The planned facility, built to international specifications at Bapco’s Sitra refinery, will be producing 400,000 tonnes per year of sulphur-free, very high viscosity lubricant base oils. The products are in increasing demand to meet the next generation of lubricant performance requirements and environmental standards. The base oil products will be marketed on a global basis. The Lube Base Plant is expected to be in operation in the first half of 2008.
Within the next six months, Neste Jacobs OY will complete the Front End Engineering Design (FEED), and following the final agreement detailed Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) will be executed.Bapco’s low sulphur diesel hydrocracker project, due on-stream around mid-2007, will provide feedstock to the Bapco and Neste Oil facilities.
Technimont wins Iran project
Project Name: LDPE Unit
Project Location: Kurdestan Iran
Client: Bakhtar Petrochemical Company
Contractor: Technimont
Contact Details: Andrea Brunetti, Project Execution Manager
Technimont Spa Headquarters Viale Monte Grappa, 3 20124 Milan Italy
Phone: +39 02 63 13 1
Email: a.brunetti@tecnimont.it
Project Details:
Bakhtar Petrochemical Company, Iran’s Petrochemical Industries Design and Engineering Company and Italy’s Technimont have signed a IRR2,394 billion ($266 million) contract for the construction of a low density polyethylene unit at Iran’s Kurdestan Petrochemical Complex.
The project aims to produce 300,000 tonnes per year (tpy) of light polyethylene (PE), 30,000 tpy of low-density polyethylene (LDPE), and 30,000 tonnes of butane-1 per year.
The technical know-how would be brought by Lopotek, a subsidiary of Basell. The complex will be built within 38 months in Sanandaj, the capital of the western province of Kurdestan.
Kurdestan complex is one of the eight petrochemical complexes being built on the western ethylene pipeline, feeding petrochemical plants in western provinces of Iran.
