Honeywell UOP, TechnipFMC Seek to Add Motiva to $31 Billion in Active Projects

---

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Motiva Enterprises LLC, a subsidiary of Saudi Aramco (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia), signaled it may be ready to invest billions of dollars in the U.S. petrochemical industry. Earlier this week, the company signed memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with Honeywell UOP (Des Plaines, Illinois) and TechnipFMC (London, England), two of the top service providers for North American petrochemical projects, during Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's stateside visit. Industrial Info is tracking nearly $29 billion in active, U.S.-based projects involving TechnipFMC and nearly $2 billion involving Honeywell UOP.

Motiva Enterprises LLC, a downstream oil and gas subsidiary of Saudi Aramco, said in a press release that the MoUs could lead to total investments of between $8 billion and $10 billion. Mohammed bin Salman has been striving to open up Saudi Arabia to international business beyond the oil markets, in an effort to add multiple and diverse revenue streams to a country that has long depended on fossil fuels for economic growth.

Motiva is considering Honeywell UOP's aromatics extraction and production technology for a potential benzene and paraxylene complex on the U.S. Gulf Coast. Honeywell UOP is serving as technology provider on nearly $2 billion in projects in Texas, half of which is attributed to Enterprise Products Partners' (NYSE:EPD) (Houston, Texas) $1 billion addition of an iso-butane dehydrogenation (IBDH) unit at its NGL fractionator complex in Mont Belvieu, Texas. The project, which would produce 425,000 metric tons per year, began site preparation in February and is expected to wrap up by the end of 2019. For more information, see Industrial Info's project report.

Honeywell UOP, a subsidiary of Honeywell International (NYSE:HON) (Morris Plains, New Jersey), is the technology provider for Vaquero Midstream's (The Woodlands, Texas) $150 million second processing unit its Caymus Cryogenic Sour Natural Gas Processing Plant in Coyanosa, Texas, which kicked off in the summer of 2017 and is in its final stages of construction, and the proposed, $150 million third processing unit and $150 million fourth processing unit at the same facility. Each unit would process 200 million standard cubic feet per day from the Avalon, Wolfcamp and Bone Spring shale formations in the Permian's Delaware Basin. For more information, see Industrial Info's project reports on the second, third and fourth units.

The other MOU allows Motiva to evaluate TechnipFMC's mixed-feed ethylene production technologies for U.S.-based projects. TechnipFMC already is providing engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services for one of the most hotly anticipated Gulf Coast projects: Sasol Limited's (NYSE:SSL) (Johannesburg, South Africa) $4 billion Lake Charles Chemical Project (LCCP) ethylene unit in Westlake, Louisiana, which is designed to produce 1.5 million metric tons per year for the downstream units also planned for the site. It is expected to begin production toward the end of this year. For more information, see Industrial Info's project report.

TechnipFMC also is slated to provide EPC services, including front-end engineering design, for SCT&E LNG LLC's (Houston) proposed Monkey Island LNG Liquefaction Production and Export Facility in Cameron, Louisiana. The full complex currently is designed to produce 15.75 million tons per year through the construction of three natural gas liquefaction trains, each with a capacity of 5.25 million tons.

The project is working its way through a lengthy permitting phase, which is expected to last through the end of 2019, but has received approval from the U.S. Department of Energy to export product to countries with which the U.S. has a free trade agreement. Project owners also have signed off-take agreements with four companies for a total of 4.7 million metric tons per year of LNG. For more information, see Industrial Info's project reports on Phase I, Phase II and Phase III.

"These [MOU] agreements signal our plans for expansion into petrochemicals," said Brian Coffman, the chief executive officer of Motiva, in a press release announcing the deals. "We are excited to work more closely with these leaders in the industry to further assess our opportunities for investment."

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, six offices in North America and 12 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities. Follow IIR on: Facebook - Twitter - LinkedIn. For more information on our coverage, send inquiries to info@industrialinfo.com or visit us online at http://www.industrialinfo.com/.