Petro Rabigh to Start Up Cracker Mid-Feb
SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--Saudi Arabia’s Rabigh Refining and Petrochemical Co (Petro Rabigh) is expected to start up its 1.25m tonne/year cracker around mid-February, said a source close to the company on Tuesday.
On-spec product at the facility in Rabigh located on the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia should be available shortly after the start up if all goes smoothly, he added, without providing dates.
The company is also slated to start up its derivative 600,000 tonne/year monoethylene glycol (MEG) plant at the same site as planned at the end of the month.
Petro Rabigh is a $10bn joint venture between state-owned oil giant Saudi Aramco and Japan's Sumitomo Chemicals. A total of 23 plants producing 18.4 m tonnes/year of petroleum-based products and 2.4 m tonnes/year of ethylene and propylene-based derivatives make up the project, which was originally scheduled to start commercial production in the fourth quarter of 2008. The start up of some units was pushed back to early 2009 due to technical issues.
On-spec product at the facility in Rabigh located on the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia should be available shortly after the start up if all goes smoothly, he added, without providing dates.
The company is also slated to start up its derivative 600,000 tonne/year monoethylene glycol (MEG) plant at the same site as planned at the end of the month.
Petro Rabigh is a $10bn joint venture between state-owned oil giant Saudi Aramco and Japan's Sumitomo Chemicals. A total of 23 plants producing 18.4 m tonnes/year of petroleum-based products and 2.4 m tonnes/year of ethylene and propylene-based derivatives make up the project, which was originally scheduled to start commercial production in the fourth quarter of 2008. The start up of some units was pushed back to early 2009 due to technical issues.
source: www.ICIS.com
