Aramco details US firm’s role in chemicals project

24 July 2018
KBR had won the second Feed and PMC contract for Saudi Aramco and Sabic’s crude oil-to-chemicals project

Saudi Aramco has made public the scope of US-based contractor KBR’s front-end engineering and design (feed) and project management consultancy (PMC) contract for its crude oil-to-chemicals (COTC) complex project with the Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic).

The Aramco-Sabic JV has awarded two feed and PMC contracts for the project estimated to be worth between $20bn and $25bn – one to the UK’s Wood Group and the second to KBR.

KBR will provide the feed for the downstream petrochemicals and chemicals component within the COTC master complex.

The scope includes engineering studies, infrastructure planning and development for both of the polymer and glycol units, along with the aromatics complex, the COTC master plot plan, and offsite utilities.

The scope of the UK-based Wood Group’s Feed and PMC contract was already known to entail provision of engineering and design for the refining components, mixed feed steam cracker, on-site utilities, interface and site integration, and selection of technology providers.

In its statement, Aramco also said work on the giant complex is “moving forward”.

When completed in 2025, the fully integrated COTC complex will become the largest of its kind in the world.

The complex is expected to process 400,000 barrels per day of Arabian Light crude oil, which will produce approximately 9 million tonnes of chemicals and 9 million tonnes of fuels per year.

The complex is projected to achieve an unprecedented direct conversion rate from crude oil to chemicals of up to 50 per cent.

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