Saudi Aramco, a fully-integrated, global petroleum enterprise and the world’s leading energy supplier, and The Dow Chemical Company, the world’s leading science and technology company that provides innovative chemical, plastic and agricultural products and services to consumers around the globe, have announced the selection of KBR as the project management contractor for the proposed world-scale chemicals and plastics production complex in Saudi Arabia, named the Ras Tanura Integrated Project.

KBR, based in Houston, Texas, is a leading global engineering, construction and services company supporting a variety of sectors including the refining and petrochemicals industry.
“KBR’s capability to provide best-in-class large project management expertise and their competitiveness were the critical factors in our selection process,” said Bob Donaho, project director for the Ras Tanura Integrated Project for Dow. “The project management contractor for the integrated complex needs to be able to balance quality and performance while managing the complexity of this project.  We believe that KBR will successfully deliver these critical elements to the proposed joint venture.”
Salman M. Al-Aradi, project director for the Ras Tanura Integrated Project for Saudi Aramco, said: “This mega-project will leverage our refining assets by adding value to our feedstock to produce a diversified petrochemical slate of specialty chemicals. Dow and Saudi Aramco are committed to the commercial success of this effort, and we are confident that KBR’s expertise will strengthen our ability to bring long-term benefits to the project owners and to the kingdom.”
Saudi Aramco manages proven reserves of over 260 billion barrels of oil, the largest of any company in the world, and manages the fourth-largest gas reserves in the world. It operates one of the world’s largest integrated gas gathering, processing and industrial distribution systems. These strengths, combined with the massive resource base of oil and gas, have allowed the company to fuel and feed the kingdom’s burgeoning petrochemical business over the past three decades. Saudi Aramco, which is also among the top 10 refiners in the world, also owns and operates one of the world’s largest tanker fleets to help transport its crude oil production, which amounted to over 3.2 billion barrels in 2006. In addition to its headquarters in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province city of Dhahran, Saudi Aramco has affiliates, joint ventures and subsidiaries spanning the globe, with a presence in the US, Europe and Asia.
Dow offers a broad range of products and services to customers in more than 175 countries, helping them to provide everything from fresh water, food and pharmaceuticals to paints, packaging and personal care products. Built on a commitment to its principles of sustainability, Dow has annual sales of $49 billion and employs 43,000 people worldwide.