Petrokemya, a subsidiary of Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) has signed an initial deal with Spanish oil engineering company Tecnicas Reunidas to build a petrochemical plant in the industrial city of Jubail, Sabic said Saturday. The long-awaited project for the acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) plant, is estimated to cost $561 million and is expected to start initial operations in the fourth quarter of 2014, Sabic, the world's biggest petrochemicals group by market value, said in a press statement. It did not provide the value of the contract with Tecnicas Reunidas, and said it would finance the project with its own resources. The project will have production capacity of 140,000 tons per year of the ABS product, which is used by the automotive industry among others, the Sabic press statement said. Arabian Petrochemical Co, known as Petrokemya, is fully owned by Sabic. Sabic said last year it would launch a joint venture firm, Saudi Japanese Acrylonitrile Co (Shrouq), with Japan's Asahi Kasei Chemicals and Mitsubishi Corp. to build a plant to produce acrylonitrile and sodium cyanide at one of the Sabic affiliates' sites in Jubail, with a final investment decision due in 2012.
