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Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) plans to study setting up a complex to convert oil and liquids into chemicals in Ras Al-Khair, with the capacity to convert 400,000 barrels per day of crude oil into chemicals, the petrochemicals company said in a statement on Tadawul.
SABIC said it "affirms its commitment to continue developing crude oil to chemicals technologies, which contributes to increasing cost efficiencies and value creation opportunities in the energy and chemical industry on a larger scale".
The crude oil into chemicals (COTC) project is part of SABIC’s strategic growth plan, it said. In 2017, SABIC and oil producer Saudi Aramco had drawn up a deal to build a $20 billion COTC complex. The plans were reevaluated in 2020 when crude oil prices fell as demand collapsed due to the pandemic. The two companies then proposed integrating Aramco’s existing refineries in Yanbu with a mixed feed steam cracker and downstream olefin derivative units.
(Writing by Brinda Darasha; editing by Seban Scaria)