Saudi Petrochemical Company Selects ABB as E&C for Styrene Unit Addition

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Saudi Petrochemical Company (Al Jubayl, Saudi Arabia) has awarded ABB Lummus Global GmbH (Wiesbaden, Germany) a $4 million contract to serve as the engineer and technology provider for a styrene unit addition (PEC 97000167) at the Al Jubayl complex (Plant 1033091). The unit will produce 600,000 metric tons a year and could cost as much as $350 million for the design, construction and commissioning. Current scheduling targets the construction kick-off date to be in the first half of 2005 and a tentative completion date during the first half of 2007.

ABB Lummus won the contract over the Shaw Group, the only other competitor for the contract. ABB will spend the next twelve months completing basic engineering for the process package. ABB's styrene process technology begins with alkylating benzene with ethylene creating ethylbenzene and the dehydrogenating it into styrene.

Saudi Petrochemical will award the E+P+C (engineering, procurement, and construction) package during the first quarter of 2005.

Saudi Petrochemical Company is a 50/50 joint venture between Saudi Basic Industries Corporation and Royal Dutch/Shell Group that was formed in 1985. Commercial operations began in 1986. Saudi Petrochemical manufactures ethylene, ethylene dichloride, styrene, caustic soda, and methyl tertiary ether (MTBE) as well as many other chemical products.