Saudi Aramco, SABIC sign MoU for petrochemicals complex

The crude oil to chemicals (COTC) complex is expected to process 400,000 barrels per day of crude oil, which will produce approximately 9 million tons of petrochemicals and base oils annually. It is expected that complex will start operations by 2025.

This MoU follows the Heads of Agreement (HoA) signed in June 2016 between the two companies, which governed the feasibility study for the development of a fully integrated petrochemicals complex in Saudi Arabia. A Saudi team developed innovative COTC configurations derived from best-in-class refining and chemical technologies.

“This project converges the commercial and strategic interests of both Saudi Aramco and SABIC, while reinforcing Saudi Aramco’s efforts to optimise the investment of our petroleum resources. COTC will also help expand our downstream portfolio, reducing our focus on the transportation sector and securing new and promising commercial opportunities," Saudi Aramco president and CEO Amin H Nasser said.

"This venture will contribute to the realisation of one of the major aspirations of Saudi Vision 2030, namely achieving economic prosperity by boosting our investment capacity, diversifying the economy and creating jobs for Saudi nationals. It will help strengthen our economic growth and attract world-class quality investments thanks to our unique and strategic geographic location," said SABIC vice chairman and CEO Yousef Abdullah Al-Benyan.

The complex is expected to create an estimated 30,000 direct and indirect jobs, further stimulating the country's economic diversification. By 2030 the COTC complex is expected to have 1.5 per cent impact on its gross domestic product, with investments being shared equally by both companies.

Consistent with the country's Vision 2030 economic transformation programme, this project will support the creation of a world-leading downstream sector in Saudi Arabia, built on four key drivers: maximising value from Saudi Arabia's crude oil production via integration across the hydrocarbon chain; enabling the creation of conversion industries to produce semi-finished and finished goods to help diversify the economy; developing advanced technologies and innovation; and enabling sustainable development in alignment with the country's National Transformation Program.

"Today is a historic day, marking the complementary nature of the relationship between SABIC and Saudi Aramco because it is the first time the two largest economic entities in Saudi Arabia jointly enter into a strategic partnership to achieve a pioneering and innovative new technology. Once completed, this project will not only be the largest crude oil to chemicals complex in the world, it will also set a new competitive threshold thanks to the project's mass scale and the benefits derived from our joint collaboration. The project will, therefore, help achieve the respective growth ambitions of Sabic and Saudi Aramco and further establishes the country as one of the pioneers in the petrochemicals industry," Al-Benyan concluded. (RR)

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