Korean contractor wins Saudi chemicals plant contract

19 February 2024

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Advanced Polyolefins Company, a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s Advanced Petrochemical Company, has awarded South Korean contractor SGC eTEC Company the main contract for building an isopropanol plant in the kingdom’s Jubail Industrial City.

SGC eTEC Company, along with its local unit SGC Arabia, will perform engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) works on the planned isopropanol facility.

The value of the EPC contract is $191.25m, Saudi Exchange-listed Advanced said in a filing on 18 February.

The isopropanol facility will have an output capacity of 70,000 tonnes a year (t/y) and use technology provided by Thyssenkrupp Uhde Engineering Services.

The duration of the EPC works is 32 months, with the commissioning of the project expected to take place in the last quarter of 2026.

Advanced first announced the isopropanol project in October 2020. The plant will be part of Advanced Polyolefins Company’s upcoming greenfield petrochemicals facility in Jubail.

Greenfield petrochemicals complex

Advanced owns the majority 85% stake in Advanced Polyolefins Company, with South Korea’s SK Gas Company holding the remaining 15%.

Advanced Polyolefins Company’s upcoming petrochemicals facility in Jubail 2 will have the combined capacity to produce more than 1.6 million t/y of propane dehydrogenation (PDH) and polypropylene compounds.

The complex is expected to manufacture 843,000 t/y of propylene and 800,000 t/y of polypropylene, which will be used to produce specialty polymers for the face mask, automotive, piping, food packaging and textile industries.

Advanced Polyolefins Company awarded the main EPC contracts for the project to South Korea’s Samsung Engineering and Italy-headquartered Maire Tecnimont in April 2021.

Samsung Engineering secured contracts worth a combined $1.2bn for two packages of the project. The South Korean contractor is executing EPC and project management works to build the PDH unit, as well as work on the utilities and offsites package. It expects to finish work on both packages in 2024.

Maire Tecnimont won a $500m contract to build two polypropylene-producing units with a production capacity of 400,000 t/y each. The Italian contractor also expects EPC works on its package to be completed in 2024.

Saudi contractor Al Rushaid Construction Company was awarded a contract in December 2021 to execute civil works for the project.

South Korea’s SK Engineering & Construction has executed the front-end engineering and design work on the project.

US-headquartered Fluor Corporation is the project management consultant. 

US energy contractor McDermott International’s subsidiary Lummus Technology is the provider of licensed technology and basic engineering services for a C3 Catofin unit as part of the project.

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Indrajit Sen
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