Verdict on Aramco Crude-to-Chemicals Plan With Sabic Seen in 2Q - Bloomberg

Verdict on Aramco Crude-to-Chemicals Plan With Sabic Seen in 2Q - Bloomberg:

Saudi Basic Industries Corp. and Saudi Aramco expect to announce in the second quarter whether they’ll proceed with plans to build a facility to process crude oil directly into chemicals, Sabic’s chief executive officer said.

The companies are still working on the proposal, assessing technological and market risks as well as spending requirements, Sabic CEO Yousef Al Benyan said Thursday in an interview in Riyadh. Sabic, the biggest chemicals producer in the Middle East, and Aramco, the world’s largest oil exporter, agreed in 2016 to study the project, which would cut out a costly intermediate link in the production of plastics.

“We are in the phase of looking at the final scope,” Al Benyan said. “As soon as we finalize it, and I think this will come in the second quarter, we will be able to make some announcement.”

The complex, which the partners originally planned to build at Yanbu on the kingdom’s western coast, is expected to process 400,000 barrels a day of crude and produce about 9 million tons of chemicals and base oils annually. Olivier Thorel, Aramco’s executive director for chemicals, said in December that the project was progressing more slowly than anticipated.