US oil and energy giant ExxonMobil has formed a joint venture with SABIC for their Gulf Coast Growth Ventures project in San Patricio County, Texas, USA. The shares in the jv were not revealed.

“We are very pleased to announce the creation of what is now planned to be the third joint venture between our two companies. We look forward to the next phase of the project, which supports not only our goals for global diversification, but also supports Saudi Vision 2030,” said SABIC vice chairman and CEO, Yousef Al-Benyan.

SABIC is the operating partner for two long-standing ventures with ExxonMobil in Saudi Arabia, notably Kemya in Jubail and Yanpet in Yanbu.

The companies disclosed in mid-2016 that they were looking at building a joint complex on the US Gulf Coast. They agreed in May 2017 to carry out a feasibility study on building an ethane cracker with a capacity of 1.8 million t/y, touted as the largest capacity of any ethane cracker built to date. The facility will feed a monoethylene glycol plant and two PE units.

Construction is pending completion of the environmental permitting process. The complex is expected to start operating in 2021-2022.

In separate news, ExxonMobil has acquired PT Federal Karayatama, an Indonesian manufacturer of motorcycle lubricants, for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition includes the Federal Oil brand and a 700,000 bbl/y blending plant in Cilegon. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2018, if not earlier.

“Driven by strong economic development and an expanding middle class, Asia is expected to represent 70% of global lubricant demand growth over the next decade,” said Nigel Searle, senior vice president of ExxonMobil Lubricants. “We continue to make strategic investments across our lubricant value chain to ensure ExxonMobil is well positioned to meet increasing global lubricant demand.”