Aramco, Sabic Sign Pact for $20 Billion Oil-to-Chemicals Project

[IsailedawayfromFR]

Saudi Arabia’s two biggest companies signed an initial agreement to build a plant to process crude oil directly into chemicals, a project the partners estimate will have a final value of some $20 billion.

The memorandum of understanding governs the execution of front-end engineering design for the integrated plant, Saudi Aramco and Saudi Basic Industries Corp. said Sunday in a joint statement. The complex, to process 400,000 barrels a day of crude oil when it starts operations in 2025, will help the kingdom diversify its economy away from crude exports, Aramco Chief Executive Officer Amin Nasser said.

“We will take a decision on the final investment value after conducting detailed studies in the second stage, which will take two years,” Nasser said in the eastern city of Dhahran at a signing ceremony with Sabic CEO Yousef al Benyan.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-26/aramco-sabic-sign-pact-for-20-billion-oil-to-chemicals-project

Taking 400k bopd of crude out of the world market should have some consequences.

SA is finding other ways to score profit when crude prices are low, and this should be one that works.

[Bigun]

Yet another wise move on the part of the Saudis!

[thackney]

Taking 400k bopd of crude out of the world market should have some consequences.

SA is finding other ways to score profit when crude prices are low, and this should be one that works.

Half of the output will be diesel.

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/business/energy/2017/11/26/Saudi-Aramco-SABIC-plan-to-build-20-bln-oil-to-chemicals-complex.html

...The complex would start operations in 2025, processing about 400,000 barrels per day of Arabian Light crude oil to produce about 9 million tonnes of chemicals and base oils annually, plus 200,000 bpd of diesel for domestic consumption....