The project, said SABIC, is part of its strategic growth plans, as well as contributing to the realization of the Kingdom’s program to convert oil and its liquids into chemicals. The company added that the proposal also “affirms its commitment to continue developing COTC technologies, which contribute to increasing cost efficiencies and value creation opportunities in the energy and chemical industry on a larger scale.”

According to local media reports, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister Abdulaziz bin Salman said during the opening of a SABIC building in Jubail that the COTC project will be undertaken as a joint venture with parent company Saudi Aramco and be completed “in the coming years.” He cited strong demand from the global petrochemicals industry for oil, with growth to accelerate by 60% until 2040.

SABIC is also developing a COTC complex in Yanbu. It said in October 2020 that it was reevaluating the project’s scope to include the integration of Aramco’s existing refineries at the site.

The companies signed a Memorandum of Understanding in November 2019 to study the project’s feasibility – the complex is expected to produce about 9 million t/y of petrochemicals by 2025. Contracts were awarded in 2018 to Wood and KBR for project management and front-end engineering and design services.

Earlier this month, Aramco announced that it had given the go-ahead for its South Korean affiliate S-Oil to proceed with a thermal crude-to-chemicals complex (TC2C) in Ulsan. The project will be the first commercialization of Aramco and Lummus Technology’s TC2C technology when it starts up in 2026.

Author: Elaine Burridge, Freelance Journalist