Thursday, Apr 09, 2009
BEIRUT (Zawya Dow Jones)--Petro Rabigh, a joint venture of Sumitomo Chemical Co. Ltd. (4005.TO) and Saudi Arabian Oil Co., said Thursday it had started operating an ethane cracker and refining facilities at its estimated $10 billion refinery and chemicals complex at Rabigh on the Red Sea.
Petro Rabigh, also known as Rabigh Refining and Petrochemical Co., said in a statement on the Saudi bourse Web site Wednesday that the 1.3 million ton a year ethane cracker is one of the largest units at the complex.
The ethane cracker produces ethylene, a natural gas derivative, for the production of high-density polyethylene and low-density polyethylene that will be used to make plastics, in addition to monoethylene glycol, Petro Rabigh said.
Petro Rabigh also launched operations of new refining units including a vacuum distillation unit and a vacuum gas oil hydrotreating unit as a prelude to the start-up of the new high olefin fluid catalytic cracking unit, which will produce 900,000 tons a year of propylene and 59,000 barrels a day of gasoline, the company said.
The propylene will be used to manufacture polypropylene as well as propylene oxide, according to the statement.
-By Shikrallah Nakhoul, Zawya Dow Jones, +961 1 985757, shikrallah@zawya.com
Copyright (c) 2009 Dow Jones & Co.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
09-04-09 0951GMT
