Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with the US Shaw Stone & Webster for the engineering, procurement and construction of a high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plant at the Yansab affiliate, Yanbu, Saudi Arabia.

Abdulrahman Al-Fageeh, Yansab president, signed the LOI for his company.  Ebrahim Fatemizadeh, president of Energy and Chemicals, Shaw Stone & Webster, signed for his company in the presence of Mohamed Al-Mady, Sabic vice chairman and CEO.
Al-Mady said he expected Yansab to go on-stream by 2008 with an annual capacity of 1.3 million tonnes per pear (tpy) of ethylene; 400,000 tpy of propylene; 770,000 tpy of ethylene glycol; 500,000 tpy of linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE); 400,000 tpy of high-density polyethylene (HDPE); 400,000 tpy of polypropylene; 100,000 tpy of butene-1 and butane-2 and 250,000 tpy of benzene, xylene and toluene compound.
“I believe that this large annual capacity will further enhance Sabic’s position among the world’s largest petrochemical companies and strengthen its competitive capabilities in the global markets.
“Yansab is a model of integration among Sabic industries and a symbol of mutual cooperation between the government and private sectors.”
Among the major Yansab contracts concluded in the course of the past several months was one with the Aker Kvaerner and China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec) joint venture under which the two companies will carry out the engineering, procurement and construction of a linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) plant as well as a polypropylene plant. The project also includes the supply and construction of shared offsite product handling facilities. The two new plants are an integral part of the main ethylene and propylene-manufacturing complex.
The polypropylene plant utilises Dow technology while the LLDPE plant will use Sabic-owned and patented polyethylene technology.