MOSCOW (MRC) -- Rabigh Refining and Petrochemical Co (PetroRabigh) has decided to begin the maintenance shutdown at its high denisty polyethylene (HDPE) plant in Jubail, Saudi Arabia to July, according to CommoPlast with reference to market sources.
The initial schedule was to shut this plant with an annual output of 300,000 tons/year on 15 June 2021.
A source close to the producer informed at that there has not been confirmation on the new maintenance date, however, the duration of the plant's outage would be 15 days.
As MRC informed before, Petro Rabigh resumed production at its HDPE plant in Rabigh, Saudi Arabia after maintenance in late May, 2020. This HDPE plant was shut in early March, 2020, although initially it was scheduled to be taken off-stream in late February.
Petro Rabigh also operates No. 1 and 2 linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) units at the same location with a combined capacty of 600,000 tons/year.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's overall HDPE production totalled 653,500 tonnes in the first four months of 2021, up by 9% year on year. At the same time, only one Russian producer increased its HDPE output.
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 1.6-million t/y of ethylene, as well as downstream production of polyethylene, polypropylene, propylene oxide, ethylene glycol and butene-1.
MRC