MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (Sabic) said that last week it had started trial operations at a new rubber plant it has built as a joint venture with a unit of ExxonMobil, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing.
Trial operations had started at the carbon black and utilities unit of the Al-Jubail Petrochemical Co. (KEMYA) rubber plant, it said in the statement.
The financial impact of the facility, a joint venture between SABIC and Exxon Chemical Arabia, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil, would be reflected in SABIC's results from the second quarter of 2016 onwards, SABIC said.
The project, estimated to cost USD3.4 billion, is expected to supply over 400,000 tpy of rubber, thermoplastic polymers and carbon black to serve emerging local and international markets in Asia and the Middle East.
As MRC informed previously, Sabic and ExxonMobil announced the construction of this plant in June 2012. Initiall the plat should have been completed in 2015. The annual capacity of the new facility is 400,000 tonnes per year of rubber- including halobutyl, styrene butadiene, polybutadiene, and ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) rubbers - thermoplastic specialty polymers, and carbon black to serve local markets, the Middle East and Asia.
Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) ranks among the world's top petrochemical companies. The company is among the world's market leaders in the production of polyethylene, polypropylene and other advanced thermoplastics, glycols, methanol and fertilizers.
ExxonMobil is the largest non-government owned company in the energy industry and produces about 3% of the world's oil and about 2% of the world's energy.