Sabic Review

Projects moving towards startup <!--top3-->

Ibn Sina which has an MTBE plant in Jubail, will set up a polyacetal facility in the same complex

Sabic has made progress in several domestic projects announced before 2012 while one key unit to produce distilled alcohol products is set for completion in a year’s time.

The 50,000 tonnes per year distilled alcohols plant will become operational in the second half of 2013 at Saudi Kayan, a Sabic affiliate. China’s Sinopec is constructing the plant.

A first of its kind in the Middle East, it forms part of Sabic’s commitment to diversifying into oleochemicals using renewable feedstock and to increasing its performance chemicals portfolio.

Construction is ongoing at Saudi Arabian Fertiliser Company for a 2014 startup of a Phase 5 plant that will produce 1.1 million tonnes of urea. Saipem is constructing the SR2 billion ($533 million) plant which will be one of the world’s largest of its kind.

Five world-class companies have been invited to submit bids for the construction of a polyacetal (also known as polyoxymethylene or POM) facility at Sabic’s affiliate Ibn Sina (National Methanol Co) in Jubail. Currently Ibn Sina produces MTBE (methyl tertiary butyl ether). The new plant with annual capacity of 50,000 tonnes was first announced in 2010 when Sabic signed an agreement with Celanese, its partner at Ibn Sina, to develop the project.

Sabic said earlier this year it is moving forward with plans to build a polyacrylonitrile (PAN) precursor and carbon fibre manufacturing plant in the kingdom and is looking for a manufacturer. The company has identified carbon fibre as necessary for downstream industry development. In June 2011 it had signed a technology licensing pact with acrylic fibre manufacturer Montefibre SpA of Milan, Italy.

The Safco plant in Jubail is expanding
with a new urea unit

Solid progress has been made in a major synthetic rubber project set up by a joint venture between Sabic and US Exxon Mobil Chemical. South Korea’s Daelim, Industrial, France’s Technip and Spain’s Tecnicas Reunidas have won deals to build the plant at Kemya, a company owned by Sabic and Exxon Mobil Chemical. The $3.4 billion project will produce 400,000 tonnes annually of synthetic rubber, carbon black and speciality polymers and is to be completed in 2015.

Tecnicas Reunidas is also the EPC contractor to build a grassroots acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) plant in Jubail at the complex of Petrokemya, a Saudi subsidiary. This long-awaited project is expected to cost $561 million and will be ready in 2014. Annual production capacity is 140,000 tonnes.

Meanwhile, Sabic shipped in the middle of this year its first consignment of ethanolamines and ethoxylates from its manufacturing plant in Saudi Kayan making it the first Middle East country to market these advanced products. The company hopes to become an important global supplier of specialities for the production of detergents, personal care products, household and industrial cleaning agents, crop protection products, textile auxiliaries, cement processing chemicals and oilfield chemicals.

Sabic’s ambition to become a global leader in polyurethane and serve its customers with value-added services took a step forward with the signing of a TDI (toluene diisocyanate) and MDI (methylene diphenyl diisocyanate) licence agreement with Mitsui Chemicals. TDI and MDI are raw materials for producing polyurethane and the agreement also provides for joint technology development in the two materials. Mitsui Chemicals has long experience as a manufacturer of TDI and MDI and has developed pioneering manufacturing technologies.

In another agreement, Sabic and Fraunhfer-Gesellschaft, a leading German organisation for applied research, will mutually develop advanced technologies into innovative solutions, meeting global needs and demands in lightweight construction and renewable energy. Sabic has made strong strides in research and development bringing out useful products for manufacturers, particularly through its Innovative Plastics division.

 

UPGRADING SKILLS

A significant development in the studies field was the inauguration of the Sabic Academy in Riyadh in March of this year for developing industry leaders in the petrochemicals sector. The institute will refine the talents of Saudi employees and provide them an opportunity to directly interact and communicate with senior leaders of the company. They will also take part in programmes designed for Sabic by world-class universities.

Plans have been announced for establishing a High Institute for Elastomer Industries in Yanbu to train Saudis in new skills required for the kingdom’s developing elastomers conversion industry.

The company also joined hands with the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals to explore new avenues for future collaborative research in multi-disciplinary fields and signed a multi-year agreement with the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, UK, to mutually develop advanced technologies into innovative solutions, with a clear focus on meeting key market objectives and the demands of the global community.

 

OVERSEAS MOVEMENTS

Overseas, Sabic is building a Technology Centre in Kangqiao, east of Shanghai, with a focus on advanced engineering plastic materials. Also in China, work has begun on a plant in Tianjin that will produce 260,000 tonnes annually of polycarbonate in Q2 2013. The plant belongs to a company that is equally owned by Sabic and Sinopec. It has been producing since 2010 another product, ethylene.

Sabic announced it has begun work to “substantially boost” capacity at its Stamax long-glass fibre reinforced polypropylene composites and PP compound plant in Belgium. Current output capacity there is 140,000 tonnes annually.