Saudi petrochemicals group PetroRabigh — a joint venture between state-owned Saudi Aramco and Japan’s Sumitomo Chemical — has further delayed the completion of its Rabigh 2 expansion project (near Jeddah), leading to a cost increase. The rest of the project, including the majority of electrical and non-electrical utilities, support services buildings, as well as the cumene and phenol units, will be completed in the second quarter of 2017, instead of second half of 2016 as previously announced. The main reason for the delays was the failure of the key contractors of the project to meet the planned implementation schedule. Feasibility study on the project was carried out in 2009, while construction work began three years later. Work on the ethane-fed cracker, a main component of the project, was completed in April. It raised the capacity of the cracker to 1.6mn t/yr of ethylene from 1.3mn t/yr. The cracker’s ethane processing capacity increased by 30mn ft³/d (30.9bn m³/yr) to 125mn ft³/d. The project also involves a new naphtha reformer and aromatics complex that will be able to process more than 2.7mn t/yr of naphtha and produce 1.3mn t/yr of paraxylene. It is designed to produce a broad range of petrochemical products, including ethylene propylene diene monomer rubber, thermoplastic olefins, methyl methacrylate and polymethyl methacrylate. Once the Rabigh 2 expansion project is completed, the entire complex will be capable of producing 5mn t/yr of petrochemical products and 15mn t/yr of refined petroleum products. Along with around 107,000 t/yr, of sulphur an increase from around 44,000 t/yr.PetroRabigh's earnings have been hit hard by falling product prices, like many petrochemical firms in the kingdom, as they are closely tied to slumping oil prices.
