Saudi Aramco and Saudi Arabian Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) have recently signed heads of agreement to conduct a feasibility study on the development of a fully integrated crude oil-to-chemicals complex to be located in Saudi Arabia.
The heads of agreement contains key principles of cooperation that will form the basis for the companies to establish a joint venture, if the joint study reaches a positive conclusion. Derived from improved refining technology, the crude oil-to-chemicals process will involve innovative configurations with proven conversion technologies. This will create a fully integrated petrochemical complex which maximizes chemical yield, transforms and recycles by-products, drives efficiencies of scale and resource optimization and diversifies the petrochemical feedstock mix in the Kingdom.
Saudi Aramco president and CEO, Mr. Amin H. Nasser said: “Our agreement with SABIC reflects our vision to build on Saudi Arabia’s global leadership in crude oil production and commodities export by substantially increasing the production of oil-based petrochemicals and further optimizing value across the entire hydrocarbons chain. This agreement will help spur a new era of industrial diversification, job creation and technology development in Saudi Arabia, particularly through downstream conversion of specialty chemicals by small and medium sized enterprises.”