Gulf Construction Online - Ineos to build $5bn chemical plants

Saudi Focus

Ineos to build $5bn chemical plants

01 July 2019

Ineos, a leading manufacturer of petrochemicals, specialty chemicals and oil products, has signed agreements with state oil giant Saudi Aramco and French energy major Total to build three new plants in Jubail.

These world-scale plants, to come up in the Jubail 2 complex, will produce the key building blocks for carbon fibre, engineering polymers and synthetic lubricants that are pivotal to economic growth in the region, said Ineos.

The three Ineos plants will be part of a $5-billion petrochemical complex (Project Amiral) to be set up by Saudi Aramco and Total which will supply more than $4 billion of downstream derivatives and speciality chemicals units.

These include a new state-of-the-art 425,000-tonne acrylonitrile plant, which will use Ineos’ world-leading technology and catalyst. It will be the first plant of its kind in the region when it starts up 2025.

Also, the company is planning to build a 400,000-tonne LinearAlphaOlefin (LAO) plant and associated world-scale PolyAlphaOlefin (PAO). These units will be the most energy efficient in the world when they begin production in 2025.

A leading UK multinational chemicals company headquartered in London, Ineos has 34 businesses, with a production network spanning 171 manufacturing facilities in 24 countries. Ineos Nitriles, a part of Ineos Group Holdings, is the world’s largest producer of acrylonitrile and acetonitrile and a leading supplier of nitrile-based chemicals.

The British chemical giant said the Saudi location will give it access to competitive raw materials and energy, with well invested infrastructure, to better serve customers directly in the region and Asia.

Chairman Jim Ratcliffe said: “This is a major milestone for Ineos that marks our first investment in the Middle East.”