The products planned for the Jubail project will be butyl rubber, polybutadiene rubber, SBR, EPDM, thermoplastic elastomers and olefins and carbon black

SAUDI Basic Industries Corp (Sabic) and affiliates of ExxonMobil Chemical Co have awarded front-end engineering design contracts (Feed) for a planned new elastomers project in Saudi Arabia. The Al Jubail Petrochemical Co, a joint venture between ExxonMobil and its Saudi partner, plans to produce synthetic rubber and speciality elastomers to meet the growing global demand for these products. The project, once completed, will have the capacity to produce more than 400,000 metric tonnes of rubber and speciality elastomers annually to serve local and international markets in Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

Sipchem and Hanwha Chemical of South Korea have 75 per cent and 25 per cent stakes respectively in the venture, the cost of which is estimated at $800 million

SAUDI International Petrochemical Company (Sipchem) has started construction work on two new plants being built under its Phase III expansion programme.

The hydrocracking reactors, two weighing 1,660 tonnes and the other two weighing 790 tonnes were hauled 17 km safely to the site at Yanbu Export Refinery Project

ALMAJDOUIE Heavylift and MPSC, a joint venture between Almajdouie and Fagioli, have successfully moved four massive reactor units for a project in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia.

WPL has emerged as a key player for warehousing in Saudi Arabia, adopting a collaborative strategy in a competitive market segment

WITH a higher demand on the supply chain and increased focus on core business, there is a gradual shift from owning to outsourcing of asset-based components such as storage to third party providers.

The technique is not only preferred in pipe-pipe joints but also in manufacturing of tankers and pressurised vessels for faster, safer and cost effective solutions

PIPELINES are the safest and the most economical method for transmitting large amount of oil and natural gas from remote areas to consuming markets. Ever-increasing weld quality and productivity requirements of the final welds from the pipeline, orbital welding is the first choice for the joining of pipes.

The facility has capability to produce annually 2,000 Fisher control valves, 6,000 Rosemount pressure transmitters and 2,000 valve operating systems

EMERSON has announced that its Jubail plant which began operations at the beginning of last year will expand production capability in 2012 and broaden the range of valves now being offered.

The engineering division of the German firm will design, deliver and construct the new turnkey gases facilities at Sadara’s site in the Jubail 2 petrochemical cluster

THE Linde Group and Sadara Chemical Company (Sadara) have recently signed a long-term contract that will see Linde supply Sadara with carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen (H2) and ammonia (NH3) at a chemical complex now being built by Sadara in Jubail, Saudi Arabia, which will be the world’s largest chemical complex ever built in a single phase.

The massive project would generate thousands of direct and indirect employment opportunities. Aramco and Dow plan to recruit hundreds of Saudi nationals

THE joint venture called “Sadara Chemical Company” will lead to one of the world’s largest chemical facilities, producing more than 3 million metric tonnes of chemical products and plastics a year. Construction on the project has already begun at a place just 100 km from where the signing ceremony took place. The first production units will come online in the second half of 2015, with all units expected to be up and running by 2016.

Saudi Aramco and Sinopec both bring significant knowledge and expertise to the joint venture

CHINA Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group) and Saudi Aramco have signed a joint venture agreement related to the ongoing development of Yanbu Aramco Sinopec Refining Company (Yasref) Limited, formerly the Red Sea Refining Company.

The facility, to be built at a total cost of $293.3 million, will be the first in the kingdom and the GCC to produce soda ash and calcium chloride. It will have a total capacity of up to 800,000 tonnes a year

IDEA Soda Ash and Calcium Chloride Company (Isacc) has signed an agreement with Jacobs Engineering, by which Jacobs will provide engineering and project management services for the construction of an industrial complex for Jubail Inorganic Chemicals Industries Company (currently under formation) in Jubail’s Second Industrial City.

The company has also won orders worth over $30 million for substation projects for the Saudi Electricity Company, the country’s national power operator

THE Switzerland-based leading power and automation technology group ABB has won a contract from South Korea’s Hanwha Engineering & Construction Corporation to extend a substation at a power plant at Yanbu. ABB said the contract is worth about $17 million.

The firm has been making significant strides in engineering and construction in the international market through its well-established capabilities in the execution and delivery of turnkey solutions and services

A JOINT venture of L&T, Larsen & Toubro Atco Saudia has secured a large procure and construct contract from Sadara Chemical Company (Sadara), a joint venture of Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) and The Dow Chemical Company (Dow).

The firm is boosting infrastructure at its Yanbu service centre, which takes care of the entire Western Region

JUBAIL-BASED Dresser Al Rushaid Valve & Instrument Co Ltd (Darvico) is restructuring its production facilities in the city to streamline its operations, raise efficiency further and achieve a modest capacity expansion in expectation of a boom in demand for its products and services in the next few years.

The firm has become one of the largest contracting companies in Saudi Arabia with its excellent management capabilities that enable it to carry out big projects

AL OSAIS MCM Company, a subsidiary of Al Osais International Holding Company, is currently working on a few major projects in Jubail Industrial City (JIC) for the Royal Commission of Jubail and Yanbu.

The 850-megawatt Yanbu 2 plant is being built at the Yanbu Industrial Complex on the Red Sea coast about 300 kilometres to the north of Jeddah

SOUTH KOREA’S Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Company has won a contract to supply three boilers and three steam turbines for the Yanbu 2 oil-fired power plant in Saudi Arabia. Doosan said that the contract was worth $282 million and had been awarded by South Korea’s Hanwha Engineering & Construction Company.

There are $50 billion worth of petrochemicals projects either being developed or in the pipeline

SAUDI ARABIA is accelerating efforts to take its industrialisation process to the next level, moving from the processing of feedstocks – particularly hydrocarbons – towards utilising the resulting petrochemical materials for the manufacture of finished products. Rising demand on both the national power grid and on raw materials, however, could have an impact on the rate at which new developments are realised.

A subsidiary of industrialisation and energy services giant Taqa, Jesco became the first operating seamless pipe mill in the Middle East in 2006

Saudi Arabian pipe manufacturer Jubail Energy Services Company (Jesco) is set to enhance its position as one of the region’s most pioneering and vital businesses after agreeing to bolster key processes and decision-making with cutting-edge software solutions from SAP.

Saudi Aramco plans to start up an aromatics unit at its Ras Tanura refinery in eastern Saudi Arabia in 2015. The project is in the advanced stages of planning

SAUDI Aramco is planning several aromatics projects in Saudi Arabia as part of its strategy to leverage its existing assets and diversify its chemicals production.

Emerson Process Management Arabia, a wholly-owned foreign company in Saudi Arabia, operating from Jubail Industrial City, is taking huge strides in its efforts to support its Saudi client base as a company with a truly local presence

EMERSON Process Management is one of the few multinational automation companies that have both offices and manufacturing facilities in the Kingdom from where it designs, builds and supplies almost any scope of process automation project.

Growth is seen in specific industrial sectors such as energy, metals and petrochemicals based upon the strong strategic partnerships between Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, says OMAR O AL MARDI, managing director, BFHHCO

OVER the last decade, the landmark Bahrain Financial Harbour (BFH) has become the location of choice for top banking and financial institutions in the kingdom and across the region, attracting international firms since the foundation stone was first laid in December 2002.

The plant has been set up to meet the requirements of all MESC plants and to have a steady supply of raw materials that is up to the international standards. With this expansion, MESC will add an extra competitive advantage to its customers globally

RIYADH-BASED Middle East Specialized Cables Company (MESC), the leading manufacturer of all instrumentation and control cables in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region, recently inaugurated a new plant for producing Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) products in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The firm’s project will comprise the production of around 800,000 tonnes of PET and 1 mtpy of PTA in which part of the PTA will be offered to local markets

QURAIN Petrochemical Industries Company (QPIC) is progressing ahead with the development of the billion dollar petrochemical complex in Saudi Arabia, with the appointment of IHS to advise on the planning and development of the scheme. Chairman Sheikh Mubarak Abdullah Al Mubarak Al Sabah says that QPIC would lead the development of the integrated polyethylene terephthalate plant to be located at Al Jubail industrial city in Saudi Arabia.

By combining the load distribution principle of epicyclic gears, operating efficiencies of 99 per cent are possible in the Voith’s power distribution gear unit

THE power distribution gear unit by Voith Turbo BHS Getriebe is the modern answer to increased demand for high power density gear units capable of transmitting high power at high rotational speeds. By combining the load distribution principle of epicyclic gears with the simplified design of a parallel shaft gear, operating efficiencies of 99 per cent are possible.