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Dammam, Saudi Arabia
(May 9, 2005) – Isam A. Al-Bayat, Saudi Aramco’s Vice President of New
Business Development, spoke at the Saudi Mega Projects 2005 conference
today, providing details on three Saudi Aramco mega projects that represent
investment opportunities worth billions of dollars.
The projects, Al-Bayat
explained, are spearheaded by the company’s New Business Development
organization, which was established in early 2003 with the mission of
identifying business opportunities that leverage Saudi Arabia’s
competitive advantage with respect to feedstock and fuels. “In addition,
New Business Development seeks to create new revenue streams and promote the
development of the local economy,” Al-Bayat added. “Our ultimate goal is
to provide maximum support for further industrialization, expansion and
diversification of the national economy.”
Al-Bayat’s talk
focused on three mega projects:
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The Rabigh
Integrated Refinery & Petrochemical Complex
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A grassroots
export refinery
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A refining and
petrochemical project at Ras Tanura & Ju’aymah
Rabigh Refinery and
Petrochemicals
The Rabigh project was begun in May 2004, when Saudi Aramco and Sumitomo
Chemical of Japan signed a memorandum of understanding to develop the
existing 400,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Rabigh Refinery into an integrated
refinery/petrochemical complex. The new complex will integrate the refinery
with a world-scale high olefins FCC and ethane-based steam cracker, which
will be coupled with downstream derivative units that will produce 2.4
million tons per year of secondary petrochemicals. The project is scheduled
to come on stream in the third quarter of 2008.
Export refinery
The second project Al-Bayat discussed is a proposed 400,000 bpd export
refinery. “Saudi Aramco has approached the international market, seeking
investor interest for this important project,” Al-Bayat said. He noted
that potential investors were given information packages outlining the key
elements of this proposed investment opportunity, including its 400,000 bpd
capacity.
The cost of the
proposed export refinery would be an estimated $4 billion to $5 billion, and
Al-Bayat said that Saudi Aramco envisions an initial public offering that
would allow domestic investors to own stock in the venture.
Ras Tanura &
Ju’aymah Refinery and Petrochemicals
Similar to the Rabigh project, Saudi Aramco is looking into the possibility
of integrating petrochemicals production with the Ras Tanura Refinery and
Ju’aymah Industrial Area feedstocks. Ras Tanura Refinery currently
consists of a 325,000 bpd hydrocracking refinery and a 200,000 bpd
condensate splitter. The proposed integration would include a large
ethane/naphtha-based cracker, an aromatics recovery complex, and
complementary downstream derivative units to produce new secondary
petrochemicals. The total project cost is expected to be about $6 billion,
Al-Bayat said.
After discussing each
of these in-progress and upcoming mega projects, Al-Bayat said that New
Business Development isn’t resting on its laurels. Other potential
investment opportunities that it is facilitating include:
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Development of
new conversion indistries from petroleum-based olefins and
aromatics, such as carbon fibers
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A power
generation and distribution center to support Saudi Aramco’s
southern-area facilities (which includes the Hawiyah Gas Plant NGL
Recovery Project)
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Divestment of
non-core company functions, such as gas turbine repair and
refined-products distribution.
Al-Bayat stated that
Saudi Aramco is embarking on an unprecedented era of capital expansion with
expenditures in materials and equipment in excess of $20 billion, and on
services of more than $23 billion through 2010. Al-Bayat stressed that Saudi
Aramco has helped and will continue to help local manufacturers with Saudi
Aramco’s consumption data, projected usage and standards to allow them to
conduct accurate feasibility studies to locally manufacture these materials
and equipment.
Al-Bayat concluded his
talk with a message to investors: “We are ready whenever the investor is,
to be a secure supplier of fuel and feedstock, to serve as the source of a
major asset base for expansion, and to participate in, or encourage
investors to capitalize on, these opportunities aimed at achieving continued
economic development in the Kingdom.”
Source: Aramco Press
Release
CONTACT:
Jamal T. Kheiry, International Media Relations
Tel.: +966-3-874-5350
Email: [email protected]
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