MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Arabia's Rabigh Refining and Petrochemical Co (PetroRabigh) has shut its ethane cracker for 21 days effective from Nov. 14 for maintenance, the company said in a bourse filing on Sunday, reported Reuters.
The suspension, which aims to improve the plant's safety and efficiency, will impact the firm's fourth-quarter earnings by around 375 million riyals (USD100 million), the statement added.
It is the second time in recent months that the firm, a joint venture between Saudi Aramco IPO-ARMO.SE and Japan's Sumitomo Chemical, has shut the unit.
PetroRabigh shut the cracker down as a precaution on June 23 to work on damage to one of the unit's turbines, restarting it on July 14.
As MRC informed earlier, in late May 2016, PetroRabigh brought on-stream its cracker and polyethylene (PE) units following an unplanned outage. The complex was taken off-stream on May 19, 2016 owing to a power failure.
PetroRabigh, a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and Japan's Sumitomo Chemical, has an annual output capacity of 18 million tonnes of refined products and 2.4 million tonnes of petrochemicals. Located in Jubail, Saudi Arabia, the complex has an ethylene production capacity of 1.6 million mt/year, HDPE production capacity of 300,000 mt/year and LLDPE production capacity of 600,000 mt/year.
MRC