(4-trader) -- Saudi Kayan, Sadara Chemical and Saudi Acrylic Acid Company (SAAC) have joined forces to establish a new company, which will build the first butanol plant in the Middle East and the largest in the world.
The Saudi Butanol Company, which will produce butanol to support the growth of the paints and coatings industry in Saudi Arabia, will be located at Tasnee Petrochemicals Complex in Jubail Industrial City and operated by Tasnee.
The new plant is scheduled to go on-stream in the first quarter of 2015. It will open new job opportunities of around 200 direct and indirect positions for Saudi citizens.
Under the agreement, the three partners will have equal stake in the production quantities for downstream use or for sales in the local and overseas markets.
The design capacity of the plant is 330,000 metric tons per annum of n-butanol and 11,000 metric tons per annum of iso-butanol. Sabic will be marketing the Saudi Kayan share of the butanol plant along with the excess material of SAAC. The estimated total cost of the project is SR1,939 million (USD517 million).
Saudi Kayan Petrochemical Company is a manufacturing affiliate of the Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic), while Sadara Chemical Company is a joint venture developed by Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) and The Dow Chemical Company.
Saudi Acrylic Acid Company (SAAC) is an affiliate of National Industrialization Company (Tasnee) and Sahara Petrochemicals Company.
MRC