Saudi Aramco with its partner Total signed a Memorandum of Understanding with South Korean petrochemical company Daelim on Thursday to build a polyisobutylene (PIB) plant in Saudi Arabia, Saudi Aramco said in a statement.
PIB is a high value-added chemical product with a wide range of industrial applications such as adhesives, lubricants and fuel additives.
Under the MoU, Daelim plans to build a new 80,000-ton state-of-the-art PIB plant, the first of its kind in the Kingdom. The launch of the Front-End Engineering and Design (FEED) of the PIB plant will start in February and be concluded in the final quarter of the year. The facility is expected to come on stream in 2024.
According to the press release, this agreement is another step to drive Saudi Aramco's petrochemicals growth strategy, and follows the company’s announcement in October 2018 to launch an engineering study to build a large petrochemical complex in Jubail.
'The new petrochemicals facility will be using feedstock from the Amiral [petrochemical] complex in Jubail, located on Saudi Arabia’s eastern coast. It is the first time that the PIB product will be developed in the Kingdom,' the statement read.
The plant will use Daelim's proprietary technology to produce a wide range of products in a single plant, from conventional PIB (CPIB) to highly reactive PIB (HR-PIB).
'The facility’s location in Saudi Arabia will 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,' the statement added.
By Hale Turkes
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr