IHS to advise Qurain on Saudi petrochemicals investment

13 December 2011

Kuwaiti firm to build $1bn polyethylene terephthalate plant in Jubail

Kuwait’s Qurain Petrochemical Industries Company (QPIC) has appointed US consultant IHS to advise on the planning and development of an estimated $1bn petrochemical complex at Jubail Industrial City in Saudi Arabia.

QPIC will lead the development of an integrated polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plant at the city, according to the company’s chairman Sheikh Mubarak Abdullah al-Sabah, in a 12 December press release.

QPIC has not revealed details of the project’s timescale nor the contract value for IHS.

The complex will receive paraxylene feedstock from a local refinery, producing 1 million tonnes a year (t/y) of purified terephthalic acid (PTA), 800,000 t/y of PET as well as other downstream products.

Some of the PTA will be offered to local markets, while the majority will be converted to PET resin. The complex will support the downstream conversion industry in Saudi Arabia in the production of bottle pre-forms, sheet and films for the packaging of food and consumer goods.

QPIC owns stakes in the Equate joint venture with the US’ Dow Chemical, The Kuwait Olefins Company, Kuwait Aromatics Company and The Kuwait Styrene Company, as well as Kuwait Paraxylene Production Company.

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