Riyadh – Mubasher: State-run Saudi Aramco has signed agreements with Honeywell UOP and Technip FMC to consider petrochemical production technology for use in a chemical plant that it studying to build at Port Arthur refinery, Texas.
This step is part of the world's largest crude producer's effort to expand the biggest US refinery which is operated by its subsidiary Motiva Enterprises.
“These agreements signal our plans for expansion into petrochemicals,” Motiva’s chief executive Brian Coffman said.
The Middle Eastern oil giant aims at increasing the refinery’s 603,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) capacity to 1 million or 1.5 bpd, to be the largest across the world, Coffman added.
“The aromatics unit for which Honeywell UOP’s technology is being considered would convert benzene and paraxylene, byproducts of gasoline production, into 2 million tons annually of feedstocks for chemicals and plastics,” Reuters reported.
While the Technip FMC technology will contribute to producing 2 million tonnes per year of ethylene, the chief executive said.
The final investment decision on the Port Arthur petrochemical plant is not expected until 2019, Motiva said in a statement, giving no further details on the timeline for possible expansion of the Port Arthur refinery’s crude oil processing capacity.
In 2017, Aramco revealed that it would invest around $18 billion in Motiva’s Port Arthur refinery.
