Ongoing petrochemical projects in Jubail are ensuring that Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province industrial city will maintain its reputation as one of the world’s largest sites for that business sector.

While some of Sabic’s most significant projects are housed there, the city has also been favoured by other companies because it is downstream to nearby sources of energy and enjoys proximity to the seaports of Jubail and Dammam.
Jubail Chemical Industries Company (also known as Jana), manufacturer of epoxy resins, is adding new products under its Hassad project. The new facilities will produce 30,000 tonnes per year (tpy) of epichlorohydrin, 500,000 tpy of caustic soda and 45,000 tpy of calcium chloride.
Prior to Hassad, Jana had the capability of producing over 30,000 tonnes of resin every year. These are produced under the licence of Huntsman Advanced Materials USA (originally obtained from Ciba-Geigy, Switzerland). The resins are marketed under the brand names Araldite and Razeen. Araldite is a 60-year-old brand well known globally and used under the Huntsman licence, while Razeen has been developed by Jana as its own brand
The epichlorohydrin produced in the Hassad project, will be used as feedstock for manufacturing 30,000 tpy of resins, thereby raising total capacity to 60,000 tonnes, a level that will be reached this year.
The project engineering services contract for Hassad was awarded to Foster Wheeler Energy Ltd, the UK subsidiary of Foster Wheeler.
The caustic soda manufactured at the new facilities will be used as feedstock for an existing soda plant operated by Arabian Alkali Company in Jubail while the calcium chloride will be crystallised into granules and sold mainly in the GCC region.
Jana plans to raise the capacity of its epoxy resin facilities to 80,000 tpy by 2009.
Later this year, National Polypropylene Company’s new plant to produce 45,000 tpy of polymers based on propylene made from propane is to be completed in Jubail.  ABB was awarded the contracts for the new integrated propane hydrogenation polypropylene plant. Novolen Technology Holdings CV, a joint venture between ABB (80 per cent) and Equistar (20 per cent), provided its Novolen gas phase polypropylene technology and engineering services, while ABB Lummus Global provided the Catofin propane dehydrogenation technology and engineering services. ABB was also awarded a primary management contract.
The plant has incorporated the latest NTH process plant design and used the advanced proprietary NTH catalyst. The product range comprises propylene polymers including grades for fibre, injection moulding and biaxially oriented polypropylene.
An important project under implementation is the $3.5 billion Jubail petrochemicals complex. Saudi Project Management & Development Co has contracted Fluor Corporation to supply project management consultancy and front end engineering and design services. The complex, to be completed in 2008, will include a 1.35 million tpy ethane/butane cracker, a 950,000 tpy polyethylene plant, a 600,000 tpy polypropylene plant, a 530,000  tpy ethylene oxide unit and a bisphenol-A plant including phenol and cumene units with a capacity of 300,000 tpy. Additional derivative facilities will be installed for methylamines, ethanolamine, ethoxylates, butane-1 and benzene extraction. The ethane and butane feedstock will be sourced at Saudi Aramco.
Following an MoU signed by Innovene and Saudi-owned Delta International, a world-scale cracker and derivatives facility will be built in Jubail. The project, which is expected to cost around $2 billion, will be constructed in late 2008. Innovene, which was BP’s petrochemicals and refining subsidiary before it was purchased by Ineos, and Delta had announced at the time of the signing of the MoU that they would be equal partners in the joint venture.
Aker Kvaerner is providing project management and basic engineering for Sabic affiliate Ibn Zahr’s (Saudi European Petrochemical Company) Polypropylene III project. The new line will boost capacity to 500,000 tpy, nearly double its current level, by the second quarter of 2008.
Eastern Petrochemical Company or Sharq is expanding its complex to raise capacity by 2.8 million tpy.  By early 2008, the new facilities will produce 1.3 million tpy of ethylene, 700,000 tpy of ethylene glycol, 400,000 tpy of linear low density polyethylene and 400,000 tpy of high density polyethylene.  Foster Wheeler’s scope of work included front-end engineering design preparation.
Dammam 7 Petrochemical Ltd is building a plant to produce 80,000 tpy of normal butanol. Scheduled to go into operation during 2008, the plant will use LP Oxo Selector 30 technology with Normax Catayst.
LP Oxo Process Technology is a low-pressure hydroformylation process that uses propylene and synthesis gas to produce normal and isobutyraldehydes. These butyraldehydes are then converted into normal- and iso-butanol as well as other derivatives. To better suit customer needs, Davy Process Technology (DPT) and Union Carbide Corporation (UCC), a subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company, offer a variety of LP Oxo Process technologies ranging from LP Oxo Selector 10 to the LP Oxo Selector 30, which are named according to their respective isomer selectivity ratios.
Sabic-affiliate Saudi Kayan has initiated a $2.2 billion project to produce both specialty amine derivatives and polycarbonates, the first time these will be produced in Saudi Arabia.  Fluor Corporation was selected to provide engineering, procurement services and construction management for the utilities and offsite facilities. The project will utilise 17 licensed technologies with peak employment of 12,000.
Another Sabic affiliate, Saudi Methanol Company or Ar-Razi, is implementing a project to set up a 5,000 tonnes per day methanol plant at its site in Jubail. Haldor Topsّe has been awarded a contract by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to supply Topsّe two step reforming technology for the plant.
Topsّe’ will supply the licence, basic engineering, proprietary equipment and catalysts. The plant is scheduled for startup in the first quarter of 2008, after which total production capacity of the complex will reach 5 million tpy.
Ar-Razi is a 50:50 joint venture between Sabic and a Japanese consortium lead by Mitsubishi Gas Chemical (MGC).
A project for an air separation unit of the National Industrial Gases Company (Gas), a Sabic affiliate, is scheduled for commissioning in April 2008 in Jubail.  Linde AG and Linarco Saudi Arabia are working on the project which will produce 3,000 tonnes of oxygen per day. A similar unit is under construction in Yanbu and will be ready at the same time. 
Work is underway on one of the region’s largest petrochemical complexes that will produce acetic acid and vinyl acetate monomer (VAM). Sipchem is setting up the acetyls complex whose total production capacity will be 800,000 tpy. Eastman Chemicals has provided the technology licence for the acetic acid plant which will be managed by International Acetyl Company, while DuPont has issued the technology licence for VAM, to be managed by International Vinyl Acetate Company. Fluor Corporation is the main contractor for the two plants providing engineering, procurement and construction management services. Lurgi AG commenced site construction of the carbon monoxide plant, an integral part of the acetyls complex, in January of this year. Commercial operations for the acetyls complex are scheduled for the beginning of 2009.
Sipchem is already operating a 1 million tpy methanol plant managed by International Methanol Company and a 75,000 tpy butanediol plant managed by Advanced Chemical Industries Company.