Page 10 - Downstream Monitor - MEA Week 24
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DMEA PetroChemiCals DMEA
ExxonMobil, SABIC to proceed with petrochemical complex
middle east
SUPER-MAJOR ExxonMobil and Saudi Ara- bia’s SABIC announced on June 13 that they have decided to proceed with the construction of a chemical facility and ethane cracker in Texas, north of Corpus Christi. e decision was announced a day a er the project, Gulf Coast Growth Ventures, received permitting approvals from state o cials.
e US$10 billion project includes two poly- ethylene units and a monoethylene glycol unit, as well as the steam cracker, which will be the largest such facility in the world according to the companies, with a capacity of 1.8 million tonnes per year (tpy). however, Dow Chemical is plan- ning to expand its Freeport, Texas cracker from a capacity of 1.5 million tpy currently by 500,000 tpy, which would make this facility larger than the one planned by ExxonMobil and SABIC.
Construction on Gulf Coast Growth Ven- tures will begin in the third quarter of this year, and start-up is anticipated in 2022.
e two companies are participating in the joint venture on a 50:50 basis with ExxonMobil as the operator. e facility will make chemicals used in automotive coolants, agricultural lm and building, packaging, clothing and construc- tion materials.
ExxonMobil is aiming to use its Permian Basin output as feedstock for the facility, and the project forms part of its Growing the Gulf ini- tiative, which involves building and expanding
manufacturing facilities along the Gulf Coast. “Building the world’s largest steam cracker, with state-of-the-art technology, on the door- step of rapidly growing Permian production gives this project signi cant scale and feedstock advantages,” said ExxonMobil’s chairman and CEO, Darren Woods. “It is one of several key projects that provide the foundation for signi - cantly increasing the company’s earnings poten-
tial,” he added.
For SABIC, this will be the third joint venture
with ExxonMobil, and the rst to be operated outside of Saudi Arabia. e project falls under SABIC’s growth strategy to build new petro- chemical facilities in important markets, includ- ing the Americas, to address industry demand and meet the company’s 2025 targets.
Project construction will be led by four pri- mary EPC companies – Wood Group, McDer- mott & Turner Industries Group, Chiyoda & Kiewit and Mitsubishi heavy Industries & Zachry Group.
e project is anticipated to create over 600 permanent jobs, with an additional 6,000 jobs set to be created during construction. A study conducted by Impact DataSource has estimated that the project will generate over US$22 bil- lion in economic output during construction and US$50 billion in economic bene ts during its rst six years of operation, the joint venture partners noted.
PiPelines
Azerbaijani gas reaches Turkish- Greek border via TANAP pipeline
middle east
GAS extracted from Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz-2 Caspian Sea eld has reached the Turkish-Greek border on the newly-constructed $8.5bn Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP), Azer- baijani media reports said on June 17.
head of the TANAP consortium Saltuk Duzyol has previously said that the pipeline would be ready for commercial gas deliveries by July 1.
TANAP is to connect to the under-construc- tion Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) which will traverse Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea
before making landfall in Southern Italy.
The inauguration of TANAP took place in Turkey last June. It is to is deliver 6bn cubic metres of gas to Turkey and 10bn cm to Europe annually. Shah Deniz-2 gas is fed into it from the Azerbaijan-to-Georgia-to-Turkey South Cauca-
sus Pipeline (SCP).
Overall, the pipelines are to ful l the South-
ern Gas Corridor (SGC) project, which rivals Russia’s TurkStream project which is to deliver gas to Turkey and Bulgaria (and eventually beyond) via Black Sea routes.
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 24 19•June•2019
