Saudi Arabia’s SABIC said Monday it is studying launching a jointly-owned petrochemicals complex with an affiliate of U.S. Exxon Mobil.
fIf developed, the project would be “located in Texas or Louisiana near natural gas feedstock and include a world-scale steam cracker and derivative units,” the company said. Before making final investment decisions, the companies will “conduct necessary studies and work with state and local officials to help identify a potential site with adequate infrastructure access.”
“We are focused on geographic diversification to supply new markets,” said Yousef Abdullah Al-Benyan, SABIC vice chairman and chief executive officer, according to a SABIC press release. “The proposed venture would capture competitive feedstock and reinforce SABIC’s strong position in the value chain.”
Neil Chapman, president of ExxonMobil Chemical Company, said: “We have the capability to design a project with a unique set of attributes that would make it competitive globally. That is vitally important as most of the chemical demand growth in the next several decades is anticipated to come from developing economies.”
ExxonMobil and SABIC have worked together for 35 years in major chemical joint ventures in Saudi Arabia.
Last month, SABIC and State-owned Saudi oil giant Aramco said they are “one step closer” to being the first ever to use crude oil directly, rather than using refined products such as naphtha or ethane gas as feedstock, to create chemicals, according to reports and announcements by the companies on Saudi Arabia’s stock exchange.
