Sabic starts production at Yansab; Tianjin to be operational this fall

) production complex in Yanbu Industrial City. Located on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast, Yansab will produce ethylene, propylene, polyethylene (PE), and polypropylene (PP). The site, which is expected to employ 1500, will offer 1.3 million tonnes of ethylene, 400,000 tonnes of propylene, 800,000 tonnes of PE, (split evenly between linear low- and high-density PE), and 400,000 tonnes of PP, as well as ethylene glycol, benzene, xylene, and toluene.

In a release, Yansab says its new site applies the latest technologies for petrochemical complex operation, including some that are new to the Kingdom. In terms of design, supply, engineering, and construction, Yansab contracted with Japan’s Toyo Engineering on ethylene glycol (EG) plant; Shaw Stone & Webster Inc. on butene and HDPE operations; Italy’s Technip on ethylene and propylene; and Flour Company on the operations utilities and site facilities. Yansab, which was incorporated on Feb. 11, 2006, and is majority owned by Sabic (51%), has invested $3.5 billion on the petrochemical complex.

Yansab parent, Sabic, announced days later that it’s received official approval from the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) for its joint-venture with the China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec), which is currently under construction in Tianjin, China. Both parties signed a strategic cooperation agreement on June 21, 2008 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. That complex is expected to be completed in September 2009 after investments of around $3 billion. The complex’s overall production capacity will be 3.2 million tonnes of petrochemical products, including ethylene, PE, ethylene glycol, PP, butadiene, phenol, and butene-1.

In a 2005 speech, and in comments since then, Sabic Vice Chairman and CEO, Mohamed Al-Mady, pointed to massive investments in Saudi Arabia and points eastward as part of an inexorable realignment. “We are witnessing a shifting of the center of economic, population, and petrochemical gravity eastward,” Al-Mady told the European Petrochemical Assn. Annual Meeting (EPCA). “This is an epic shift and deserves the attention of all planning exercises associated with meeting future global chemical demands.”

Al-Mady said growth in Southeast Asia and other developing regions had forced petrochemical producers to weigh the effect that feedstock costs and emerging markets have in determining the location of new chemical production facilities. —[email protected]