Saudi International Petrochemical Company (Sipchem) announced that it has awarded the engineering, design and construction contract for its ethyl acetate plant to eTEC Engineering & Construction Company, Korea.

The plant will produce ethyl acetate (EA) and butyl acetate (BA) with an annual production capacity of 100,000 tonnes in its industrial complex in Jubail Industrial City. This plant comes as a part of Sipchem’s growth in downstream products in full integration with current products portfolio.

Sipchem has a licensing agreement with the French company Rhodia for the use of its technology in this project. The ethyl acetate plant is expected to start production during the second quarter of the year 2013.

The contract with Sinopec Engineering will see the creation of a new polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plant and increase capacity to 750,000 tonnes per year from 330,000 tonnes, while the contract with CTCI is to double Ibn Rushd’s aromatics production capacity to 1.2 million tonnes per year and more than double its terephthalic acid capacity to 750,000 tonnes per year.

Bahrain-based investment bank Capital Management House and the kingdom’s Oil and Gas Holding Company (nogaholding) have entered a joint venture to take a controlling interest in a Norwegian-owned petrochemical logistics business.

CMH and nogaholding have acquired shares in Skaugen Gulf Petrochem Carriers (SGPC), which was formed by Norwegian-based I M Skaugen (IMS) and began operations in November 2009. CMH and nogaholding will now control a 30 per cent and 35 per cent stake in the company respectively.

DuPont Titanium Technologies (DTT) recently launched DuPont Ti-Pure R-796+, the new titanium dioxide (TiO2) pigment that maximises process flexibility and provides superior performance across a variety of decorative paper types and paper making chemistries.

Ti-Pure R-796+ delivers a highly desirable combination of opacity and retention, long-lasting light stability and high brightness together with consistent quality.