Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman wrapped up his unprecedented whirlwind tour of the United States with a stop in Houston to talk investments in the Gulf region.
The Crown Prince visited Motiva Enterprises LLC, a wholly-owned downstream oil and gas subsidiary of Saudi Aramco, to witness the signing of MoUs worth between $8 billion to $10 billion with US companies Honeywell UOP LLC and TechnipFMC plc.
The move represents a first step in Motiva’s expansion into petrochemicals. According to a release, one of the MOUs signed paves the way to evaluate the use of TechnipFMC plc’s world scale mixed-feed ethylene production technologies in the US. The second MOU enables Motiva to examine the use of UOP LLC’s world scale aromatics extraction and production technologies for benzene and paraxylene for development of a potential complex along the US Gulf Coast.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was accompanied with the Saudi ambassador to the United States Prince Khaled bin Salman, Minister of Energy Khalid Al-Falih, and Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met separately with Saudi Aramco’s first generation employees.
Nasser said the visit would “bolster Saudi Aramco’s presence and partnerships with top American companies in the energy hub of Houston.”
Also while in Houston, the Crown Prince met with George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, along with James Baker. George H.W. Bush, 93, tweeted a photo of the prince with his son, George W. Bush, with the caption, “A wonderful chance to celebrate the long-standing friendship between our two nations.”
Apart from Washington, D.C. and Texas, Crown Prince Salman also visited Boston, New York, Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles. He now is traveling to France for meetings with political and business leaders in the E.U. country before returning back to Saudi Arabia.
