The PlusTech downstream conversion park, adjacent to the PetroRabigh refinery and petrochemicals complex on the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia, is now at 90 per cent capacity.

Speaking at the Saudi Downstream 2014 conference held in Yanbu, PetroRabigh’s CEO Abdulla al-Suwailem said the total investment of the park is set to exceed $1bn once at full capacity and will create about 2,000 jobs.

PlusTech covers an area of 2.5 square kilometres, has 51 available lots and cost $100m to develop. The seed money for the park was provided by PetroRabigh shareholders Saudi Aramco and Japan’s Sumitomo Chemical. A second phase is being considered.

Al-Suwailem said companies wanting to start operations at PlusTech were expected to source raw materials from the PetroRabigh product slate.

PetroRabigh cost $10.1bn to build and the second phase is under construction with a budget of $7.8bn.

The refinery produces 400,000 barrels a day (b/d) of products and sources oil at market price from Aramco on a 30-year contract. The facility also receives 99 million cubic feet a day (cf/d) of ethane, with an additional 50 million cf/d being provided for phase two. This produces 1.3 million tonnes a year (t/y) of ethylene, which is converted into monomers and polymers.

Aramco holds a 62.5 per cent stake in the facility, with Sumitomo Chemical retaining the remaining 37.5 per cent share.