Chemicals

Ineos to invest $2bn in Saudi chemical plants

Ineos’ new energy plant at the Grangemouth refinery complex on the Firth of Forth in Scotland is und

Ineos, a leading manufacturer of petrochemicals, specialty chemicals and oil products, has said it will invest $2 billion in Saudi Arabia for the construction of three chemical plants. It is the energy and chemical firm’s first investment in the Middle East by the business controlled by British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe.

The three plants to be constructed by Ineos will form part of a $5 billion petrochemical complex called project Amiral being built in Saudi Arabia by the state-owned company Saudi Aramco and France’s Total. The complex will supply more than $4 billion of derivatives and speciality chemicals, Ineos said

These world-scale plants, to come up in the Jubail 2 complex in Saudi Arabia, will produce the key building blocks for carbon fibre, engineering polymers and synthetic lubricants that are pivotal to economic growth in the region, said a statement from Ineos.

A leading UK multinational chemicals company headquartered in London, Ineos has 34 businesses, with a production network spanning 171 manufacturing facilities in 24 countries.

Ineos Nitriles, a part of Ineos Group Holdings, is the world’s largest producer of acrylonitrile – a toxic liquid used to make artificial fibres and other polymers – and acetonitrile and leading supplier of nitrile-based chemicals.

One of the three plants would be a acrylonitrile plant, the company said. A new state-of-the-art 425,000-tonne acrylonitrile plant, will use Ineos’ world leading technology and catalyst. It will be the first plant-of-its-kind in the Middle East when it starts up 2025.

Also the company is planning to build a 400,000-tonne LinearAlphaOlefin (LAO) plant and associated world-scale PolyAlphaOlefin (PAO). These units will be the most energy efficient in the world when they begin production in 2025.

The British chemical giant said the Saudi location will give it access to competitive raw materials and energy, with well invested infrastructure, to better serve customers directly in the Middle East and markets across Asia.

On the new deals, Ineos chairman Jim Ratcliffe said: “This is a major milestone for Ineos that marks our first investment in the Middle East. The timing is right for us to enter this significant agreement in Saudi Arabia with Saudi Aramco and Total.”

“We are bringing advanced downstream technology which will add value and create further jobs in the kingdom,” he stated.

The project represents a continuation of Ineos’ growth strategy following the announcement of €3- billion ($3.35 billion) investment into a new plant at Antwerp, £1-billion ($1.25 billion) investment across the UK, acquisitions in China and capacity boosts in the US Gulf Coast, Alabama and Chocolate Bayou facilities.

The company said this year it was investing in Belgium to build an ethane gas cracker to produce the chemicals needed for plastics and synthetic products and a propane dehydrogenation unit. That investment was the firm’s biggest to date.

Ineos Nitriles CEO Paul Overment said the global demand for acrylonitrile continues to grow ahead of GDP, to meet the demand for lighter, stronger, energy efficient materials such as ABS, composites and carbon fibre.

“This first investment in the Middle East consolidates our position as the market leader and shows a clear and ongoing commitment to meet our customers’ needs wherever they are in the world,” he stated.

Ineos Oligomers CEO Joe Walton said: “We are one of the world’s leading merchant suppliers of LAO and PAO. The size and location of these new plants reinforces our commitment to keep pace with our LAO and PAO customers’ expanding requirements globally.”

Ineos Oligomers already has a worldwide network of LAO and PAO production plants and bulk storage locations.

“The business produces a comprehensive range of speciality and intermediate chemicals derived from ethylene and isobutene,” he added.