SAUDI ARABIA: KBR awarded FEED services contract for Petrokemya butadiene unit expansion project

Arabian Petrochemical Company (Petrokemya), a wholly-owned affiliate of SABIC, is one of the largest manufacturing sites in Al Jubail. The site has an installed capacity of approximately 5.15 million metric tons per year of petrochemicals including olefins, PVC/VCM, polystyrene and polyethylene plants in addition to utilities and steam generation.

The butadiene extraction plant was built in 1993 with a capacity of 123,000 tons per year. Petrokemya plans to significantly expand the capacity of the plant. This expansion is part of Petrokemya and SABIC’s vision and strategic business plan with a view of growing market demands in the downstream petrochemical market.

“KBR is delighted to further strengthen our more than 20-year relationship with SABIC and our commitment to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia through this strategic project,” said Stuart Bradie, KBR’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “This contract award for the Petrokemya Butadiene Debottleneck Project demonstrates KBR’s world-class petrochemical execution and delivery capabilities within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”

Expected revenue from the contract was included in the third quarter 2014 backlog of unfilled orders for the Hydrocarbons segment. The contract value was not disclosed.

Source: KBR website, Houston, Texas; 6 Nov 2014
(Syed Rashid Ali, Karachi, Pakistan)