Saudi Aramco, along with its partner Total, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Daelim, a South Korea-based petrochemical company, to build a Polyisobutylene (PIB) plant.
Image: Saudi Aramco and Total signs agreement with Daelim. Photo: Courtesy of rawpixel on Unsplash.
Under the MoU, Daelim is planning to build a new advanced PIB plant with 80,000 tons capacity, which is expected to start operations by 2024.
The front-end engineering and design (FEED) of the PIB plant is expected to start in February 2019 and completed by the last quarter of 2019.
Saudi Aramco said: “This agreement is another step to drive Saudi Aramco’s petrochemicals growth strategy. This follows Saudi Aramco’s announcement in October 2018 to launch an engineering study to build a large petrochemical complex in Jubail.”
The facility’s location in Saudi Arabia is expected to give Daelim access to competitive feedstock and energy, with large infrastructure, to better serve customers in the Middle East and markets across Europe and Asia.
Amiral complex in Jubail, located on Saudi Arabia’s eastern coast is expected to supply the feedstock for the new petrochemicals facility’s use. It is the first time that the PIB product will be developed in the Kingdom.
The proposed specialty chemical project will be part of the petrochemical complex of Amiral, located in the value park. The facility will use Daelim’s PIB proprietary technology to produce a wide range of products in a single plant, from conventional PIB (CPIB) to highly reactive PIB (HR-PIB).
PIB is a high value-added chemical product and has a wide range of industrial applications such as as adhesives, lubricants and fuel additives.
In October 2018, Saudi Aramco made an announcement to launch an engineering study to build a large petrochemical complex in Jubail.
The petrochemical complex would include a mixed-feed cracker with 50% ethane and refinery off-gases. It will have a capacity of 1.5 million tons per year of ethylene and related high-added-value petrochemical units.
In a bid to exploit operational synergies, the petrochemical complex will be located next to the SATORP refinery, operated by Saudi Aramco with 62.5% stake and Total with 37.5%.