Aker Kvaerner Wins World-scale Polyolefins Project in Saudi Arabia

On behalf of affiliate YANBU National Petrochemical Company (YANSAB), Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) has signed a letter of intent with Aker Kvaerner for the engineering, procurement and construction of its world-scale polyolefins complex, in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia. The project is to be executed on a joint venture basis with China Petrochemical Corporation (SINOPEC Group). Aker Kvaerner will be the joint venture leader, and expects its involvement to be in the region of USD400 million.

"The award of a further project in Saudi Arabia, particularly one of this scale and complexity, recognises Aker Kvaerner's extensive project competence and strategic commitment to SABIC and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," says Inge K. Hansen, president and CEO of Aker Kvaerner.

The Aker Kvaerner led joint venture will provide the engineering, procurement and construction for the project. The new facility will include a polyethylene plant and a polypropylene plant, together with the associated product handling facilities. The new plants, part of a major new ethylene complex, will each have a nameplate capacity of 400,000 tonnes per annum. The PP plant will use Dow's UNIPOL(TM) polypropylene technology, whilst the polyethylene plant will utilise SABIC's LLDPE technology.

The project is scheduled to commence at the end of this month, and forms a major step forward in the development of one of the world's largest petrochemical plants. The new production operations will apply the latest cutting-edge technologies and the complex is expected to come on stream in April 2008.

Hansen continues: "Aker Kvaerner has an extensive track record in polyolefins, with considerable experience in the application of Dow's leading UNIPOL(TM) PP technology. This project combines our in-depth technical expertise with our proven project execution methodology."

Aker Kvaerner has further significant involvement In-Kingdom through the Butanediol project currently being executed for GACIC (Gulf Advanced Chemical Industries Company). This 75,000 tonnes per annum facility is currently in the advanced stages of construction at Al Jubail, with five million field man-hours worked without a lost time incident. Plant start-up is expected in the fourth quarter, 2005.

YANSAB is the newest SABIC affiliate. In addition to the PP and LLDPE production capacity, YANSAB is planned to produce 1.3 million tpa of Ethylene; 400,000 tpa of Propylene; 500,000 tpa of High Density Polyethylene (HDPE); 700,000 tpa of Mono Ethylene Glycol (MEG); and 250,000 tpa of Benzene, xylene and toluene compound. The complex will manufacture a wide range of basic chemical, intermediate and polymer products.

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SABIC
Sinopec Corporation
Polyolefins

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Posted 26/07/05

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