Saudi Aramco, France’s Total plan to construct mixed-feed cracker

According to Reuters, Saudi Aramco and France’s Total are planning to construct a mixed-feed cracker and derivative plants in Jubail, Saudi Arabia. The construction is expected to cost between $3 billion and $5 billion.

Once the construction is complete, the cracker is projected to have a production capacity of 1.5 million tons/year while the feedstocks for the cracker are expected be provided partly by SATORP, a JV between Aramco and Total, and by Saudi Sadara, a JV between Aramco and Dow Chemical.

The two companies’ already existing JV SATORP refinery, which is also able to produce petrochemicals, has a current capacity of 400,000 barrels/day and the parties had previously voiced their intention to increase its refining capacity by 10% on February 2017.