Saudi Aramco seeks to build chemical plant in US refinery

09 April 2018
Aramco subsidiary Motiva signs agreement with technology providers for multi-billion-dollar plant to be located within the refinery complex in Texas

Saudi Aramco has taken initial steps to expand its downstream complex in the US, the largest refinery in the country, operated by its subsidiary Motiva Enterprises.

Aramco on 7 April signed agreements, worth between $8bn and $10bn, with US downstream technology services provider Honeywell UOP, and French energy engineering firm Technip FMC, to study petrochemical production technology for use in a new chemical plant it proposes to build at the refinery complex in Port Arthur, Texas.

"These agreements signal our plans for expansion into petrochemicals," Motiva's CEO Brian Coffman said.

He also said Motiva is considering boosting the refinery's capacity from 603,000 barrels a day (b/d) to up to 1.5 million b/d, which would make it the largest in the world.

The aromatics unit for which Honeywell UOP's technology is being considered would convert benzene and paraxylene, byproducts of gasoline production, into 2 million tonnes annually of feedstocks for chemicals and plastics.

As per the second agreement, Motiva will evaluate TechnipFMC’s mixed-feed ethylene production technology to produce 2 million tonnes a year of ethylene, which is used to make plastics.

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who concluded a two-week official visit to the US before arriving in France yesterday, Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih, US Energy Secretary Rick Perry, and Aramco CEO Amin Nasser were present at the signing ceremony.

The final investment decision on the Port Arthur petrochemical plant is not expected until 2019, Motiva said in a statement.

Coffman did not provide a timeline for the possible expansion of the Port Arthur refinery's crude oil processing capacity.

"That's something we're evaluating, we're studying for in the future," he said.

The 1.2 million b/d refinery in Jamnagar, India, operated by Reliance Industries, has the world's largest crude oil processing capacity.

Aramco last year said it would invest $18bn in Motiva to expand the refinery and move into petrochemical production, a plan that Nasser confirmed earlier this year.

Aramco took full ownership of Motiva after buying out 50 per cent of the shares held by Shell.

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