Mobil and Sabic to double Yanpet capacity

Mar. 5, 1997 Mobil Yanbu Petrochemical Company and Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) will proceed with their previously announced project to double the capacity of their 50-50 joint venture petrochemicals complex at Yanbu, Saudi Arabia. The decision to develop the $ 2.5 bn project follows a detailed engineering study to confirm the project scope and economics. The expansion of the Saudi Yanbu Petrochemical Company (Yanpet) joint-venture facility will include the construction of a second 800,000 tpy ethylene cracker and facilities to convert the ethylene into 535,000 tons of PE and 410,000 tons of ethylene glycol a year. The new plant also will produce 260,000 tons of PP and 125,000 tons of pyrolysis gasoline annually. When completed in the year 2000, the expanded Yanpet complex will be one of the largest, lowest cost petrochemicals producers in the world -- providing more than 1.6 mmtpy of ethylene and more than 2 mmtpy of olefins derivative products.
Yanpet will realise significant capital and operating cost savings by integrating the new ethylene cracker and conversion facilities into the existing complex, said Mobil Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Lucio A. Noto. The expanded Yanpet facility will be able to deliver its products world-wide at very competitive costs. With this project, Mobil's current world-wide olefins derivatives capacity will increase by almost 50% to approximately 2 mmtpy in the year 2000.
Construction of the new facility is expected to begin in the third quarter of this year. Approximately 70% of the capital cost will be covered by financing and the remainder provided by equity contributions from the partners, with Mobil's share being about $ 400 mm.
Production from the existing Yanpet plant at Yanbu began in 1985. The complex, with its 800,000 tpy ethylene cracker, is recognised as a world-class facility with one of the best safety records in the industry.
ABB Lummus Global has been awarded the contract to supply technology and basic engineering for the ethylene unit. Technology for the plant will be a variation of Union Carbide's Unipol process, developed by Mobil to produce their super hexene grades. Scientific design technology will be employed in the ethylene glycol plant and the Unipol process in the PP plant.

Mobil is contemplating two further olefin-based complexes in Venezuela. It has signed a letter of intent with Pequiven to build a $ 1.6 bn facility to produce 830,000 tpy of ethylene plus PE and ethylene glycol at Jose, in eastern Venezuela.