Sumitomo Chemical announced that its Rabigh II Project in Saudi Arabia has been approved. The company will move ahead by finalizing various project elements, such as agreements for engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) and other project contracts, as well as project financing.
The Rabigh II Project, by expanding the ethane cracker and building a new aromatics complex, will use an additional 30 million standard cubic feet per day of ethane and approximately 3 million tonness per year of naphtha as feedstock to produce a variety of high value-added petrochemical products. Each plant will be brought on stream as it becomes available for operation, beginning the first half of 2016.
The total investment is currently projected to reach approximately $7 billion. The Rabigh II Project’s main products will be ethylene propylene rubber, thermoplastic polyolefin, methyl methacrylate monomer, polymethyl methacrylate, low density polyethylene/ethylene vinyl acetate, para-xylene/benzene, cumene and phenol/acetone. With respect to acrylic acid, superabsorbent polymer, caprolactam, nylon-6 and polyols, Sumitomo Chemical and Saudi Aramco will continue to explore the best possible mode of operation to implement projects on those product lines, including possible collaboration with a third party.
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