The FINANCIAL — Amin H. Nasser, President and Chief Executive Officer of Saudi Aramco and Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Total, signed in Dhahran the joint development agreement for the front-end engineering and design (FEED) of a giant petrochemical complex in Jubail, on Saudi Arabia’s eastern coast.
Announced in April 2018, the world-class complex will be located next to the SATORP state of the art refinery, operated by Saudi Aramco (62.5%) and Total (37.5%), in order to fully exploit operational synergies. It will comprise a mixed-feed cracker (50% ethane and refinery off-gases) – the first in the Arabian Gulf region to be integrated with a refinery – with a capacity of 1.5 million tons per year of ethylene and related high-added-value petrochemical units. The project represents an investment of approximately $5 billion dollars and is scheduled to start-up in the 2024.
In a move to further develop downstream industries in the Kingdom, the project will also provide feedstock for other petrochemical and specialty chemical plants located in the Jubail industrial area and beyond, representing an additional $4 billion investment by third party investors, benefitting the Saudi economy. The overall complex will represent an investment of approximately $9 billion and is expected to create 8,000 local direct and indirect jobs.
Following the signature of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in April 2018, Saudi Aramco and Total have also reaffirmed their commitment towards the joint development of fuel retail operation in Saudi Arabia.
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