Construction of Petchem, a joint venture petrochemical complex between Saudi Industrial Investment Group and Chevron Phillips Chemical Company is on schedule to start operations by 2011. “The construction of the project is 65 percent complete which includes a cracker which will used to produce 60 percent of propane and 40 percent of ethane,” Chevron Philips chief executive Greg Garland told Reuters on the sidelines of an industry conference in Dubai on Thursday. Located in Jubail, Saudi Industrial Investment Group owns 32.5 percent share of the project, Chevron Phillips owns 35 percent while the remaining shares were sold in an initial public offering, said Garland. “The investment in the project is around $5.2 billion,” he added, declining to give further details on the project. In 2000, Chevron Phillips Chemical Co and Saudi Industrial Investment Group opened Saudi Chevron Phillips, a petrochemical plant in Jubail. In 2003, they formed another firm to build a second petrochemicals plant in Jubail. Chevron Corp. said on Thursday its capital budget will be $21.6 billion next year, 5 percent lower than its 2009 budget, as the company focuses on exploration and development of oil and natural gas at the expense of refining. About 80 percent of Chevron's 2010 spending program, or $17.3 billion, will be invested in oil and gas exploration and production projects worldwide, from 75 percent this year. Saudi Petroleum and Mineral Resources Minister Ali Bin Ibrahim Al-Naimi said on Wednesday in Dubai that trade barriers cannot alter the fundamental reality of the region's long-term comparative advantages that will enable it to be the world's hub for petrochemicals production, said Addressing over 1,100 delegates at the Fourth Annual GPCA Forum, Al-Naimi said the Gulf region's advantages were based on geography, natural resources, and an already well developed production, refining and chemicals manufacturing infrastructure. “Neither the recession of 2008 nor any protectionist measures by parties outside the GCC region can alter Gulf's fundamental petrochemical strengths which is poised to become the hub for more sophisticated downstream products,” he said. “In this regard, it is strategically and economically in the best interest of GCC producers to develop and expand their domestic markets. A vibrant and growing domestic market that provides stability of demand also reduces costs for transportation and mitigates the effects of trade barriers,” he added. Al-Naimi also said that petrochemical producers in the Gulf region export significant volumes of their products to more than 100 countries around the world. Manifa operational by 2015 Saudi Aramco said Wednesday that it has resumed construction of its enormous off-shore drilling complex Manifa, addig that the project is now 60 percent complete and should be operating by 2015. The company decided to delay the project when oil prices sank last year. Aramco has called Manifa “the largest single offshore crude oil project in its history”. When completed, Manifa will comprise 27 manmade islands connected by 41 km of causeway. Moreover, it will produce 900,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Arabian heavy crude, 90 mmscfd of associated gas, and 65,000 bpd of condensate.
