S. Arabia’s Petrorabigh to delay Rabigh II project again

According to media reports, Saudi Arabia’s PetroRabigh, a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and Sumitomo Chemical will delay the construction of its expansion project once again for another six months to be completed in the second quarter of next year. The reason for the postponement, which will carry the cost of the project to a value of 34 billion rials ($9.1 billion) was cited as “construction market challenges” by the company.

The company had a former delay which increased the project cost as well and also extended the completion time of the project for nine months in late December 2015.

PetroRabighs’s Phase II project entails the extension of an existing ethane cracker and construction of a new aromatics complex that will use more than 2.7 million tons of naphtha per year for the production of higher-value petrochemical products.