Saudi Aramco and France’s TotalEnergies are finalising the execution strategy for their planned Amiral petrochemicals production facility in Saudi Arabia, before awarding the project’s engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts.

The formal award of EPC contracts for the estimated $5bn Amiral petrochemicals project is now expected to take place within the second quarter, sources tell MEED.

MEED has been reporting on the frontrunners set to win the main EPC packages of the Amiral petrochemicals project and the expected timing of the official contract awards since late last year.

Saudi Aramco and Total Refining & Petrochemical Company (Satorp) – a joint venture in which Aramco owns the majority 62.5 per cent stake and TotalEnergies the other 37.5 per cent share – will be the owner and operator of the Amiral scheme, to be located in Jubail in the kingdom’s Eastern Province.

Satorp reached the final investment decision on Amiral in December last year. Construction work was scheduled to begin during the first quarter of 2023, with commercial operation targeted to start in 2027, Aramco announced at the time.

Since then, speculation has been rife that the EPC contract awards would follow soon.

“Considering the size and scope of Amiral, the operators [Aramco and TotalEnergies] would want to ensure all specifications and aspects of the project are finalised before they proceed to the EPC award stage,” one source said.

The following contractors are understood to have emerged as the favourites for the five main EPC packages, according to sources:

• Package 1: mixed-feed cracker – $1.4bn – Hyundai Engineering & Construction (South Korea)
• Package 2: derivatives units – $1.9bn – Maire Tecnimont (Italy)
• Package 3: high-density polyethylene and logistics area – $800m – Maire Tecnimont (Italy)
• Package 4: utilities, interconnecting and flare systems – $600m – Hyundai Engineering & Construction (South Korea)
• Package 5: Storage terminals and pipelines – $500m – Sinopec Ningbo Engineering Company (China)

Amiral petrochemicals facility

The petrochemicals facility will enable Satorp to convert internally produced refinery off-gases and naphtha, as well as ethane and natural gasoline supplied by Aramco, into higher value chemicals, “helping to advance Aramco’s liquids to chemicals strategy”.

The complex will comprise a mixed-feed cracker capable of producing 1.65 million tonnes a year of ethylene, the first in the region to be integrated with a refinery. It will also include two state-of-the-art polyethylene units using Advanced Dual Loop technology, a butadiene extraction unit and other associated derivatives units.

Eventually, the complex will provide feedstock to other petrochemical and specialty chemical plants in the Jubail industrial area, which will be built, owned and operated by globally renowned downstream investors, entailing an estimated additional $4bn of investments. 

This will support establishing key manufacturing industries such as carbon fibres, lubricants, drilling fluids, detergents, food additives, automotive parts and tyres.

The overall complex, including adjacent facilities, is expected to create 7,000 local direct and indirect jobs.

In July last year, Satorp became the first Mena refinery to be certified ISCC+, an international recognition of its circular initiatives, such as recycling plastic and used cooking oil. The refinery processed the first batch of recycled plastic in November.