MOSCOW (MRC) -- Rabigh Refining & Petrochemical Co. (Petro Rabigh), a joint venture of Saudi Aramco and Sumitomo Chemical, said its Rabigh Phase II project has achieved on-spec production at the aromatics and ethylene propylene rubber (EPR) units, as per GV.
The aromatics and EPR units are the last two of 12 units to start production at the site. Petro Rabigh recently began production at the cumene, phenol, methyl tertiary butyl ether/isobutylene, metathesis, methyl methacrylate, naphtha reformer, polymethyl methacrylate, low-density polyethylene, thermoplastic olefin and polyamide 6 units.
The SAR 34 billion project also included expanding ethane production to 1.6 million t/y from 1.3 million t/y, where operations began in 2016, as well as units to produce ethylene propylene rubber, thermoplastic polyolefins, methyl methacrylate, polymethyl methacrylate, low-density polyethylene/ethylene vinyl acetate, paraxylene/benzene, cumene and phenol/acetate.
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. Thus, the complex currently has a cracker to produce 1.3-million t/y of ethylene and 900,000 t/y of propylene, as well as downstream production of polyethylene, polypropylene, propylene oxide, ethylene glycol and butene-1.
MRC