FAIRFAX, VA. - Mobil Yanbu Petrochemical Co. Inc., a subsidiary of Mobil Corp. of Fairfax, said May 13 it plans to more than double production capacity of its joint venture petrochemicals complex in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia. Expansion of the Saudi Yanbu Petrochemical Co. (Yanpet) complex will cost $2 billion.
Mobil Yanbu said engineering work is beginning to build a cracker that would produce 1.76 billion pounds of ethylene a year at Yanpet.
The complex now produces about 1.76 billion pounds of ethylene a year, a company spokes-man said.
Facilities will be built at Yanpet to convert the ethylene into 1.18 billion pounds of polyethylene and 902 million pounds of ethylene glycol. Also, the firm will produce 572 million pounds of polypropylene.
Yanpet now makes 1.34 billion pounds of PE and 770 million pounds of ethylene glycol. Yanpet now does not produce PP.
Yanpet sells polymer resins in the Middle East, Africa and in the Far East. The expansions are designed to provide more resins to those markets, the company said.
Other petrochemical byproducts from Yanpet are expected to be processed at existing facilities in Saudi Arabia, a spokesman for Mobil said.
However, he noted that plans for those other byproducts are not complete.
Yanpet is a 50-50 joint venture between Mobil Yanbu Petro-chemical of Fairfax and Saudi Basic Industries Inc. of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Each parent company will invest $1 billion in the expansion.
The company claims Yanpet will be one of the largest petrochemicals complexes in the world when the expansion is completed.
Construction is to begin in 1997, and ethylene production is to begin by 2000.
Polymer production will begin later.