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Saudi Arabia ‘produces majority of GCC’s petrochemical output’

Petrochemicals

Saudi Arabia is responsible for 67 per cent of the total amount of petrochemicals produced within the GCC, according to the Gulf Petrochemicals & Chemicals Association (GPCA) Annual Report 2012

According to the sixth edition of the report, petrochemicals production in Saudi Arabia hit 244mn cubic metres in 2012, up from 227mn cubic metres of capacity in the previous year.

Production will continue to grow in the Kingdom as Saudi Arabian companies including Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) and Saudi Aramco venture into overseas projects last year, industry sources have said. 

In January 2012, SABIC signed a cooperation agreement with China’s SINOPEC that involves the building of a new polycarbonate production facility in Tianjin, China, with a capacity of 736,238 cubic metres per annum.

Saudi Aramco, meanwhile, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with PT Peramina to develop an integrated oil refining and petrochemicals project to meet the rising demand in Indonesia and Southeast Asia.

Abdulwahab Al Sadoun, secretary general of the GPCA, said, “The entry of SABIC and Saudi Aramco into the Asian markets is a positive development as it means that the GCC petrochemicals sector has truly gone global.”

Production of petrochemicals in the GCC market increased by 5.5 per cent in 2012, despite a global slowdown in chemical production due to market weakness, the report said.

The latest report describes 2012 as a year in which the industry has flourished, even though chemicals production worldwide had decreased due to the recession in Europe, inventory discrepancies and deterioration in global manufacturing.

The GCC petrochemicals sector is forecast to reach a production capacity of 521mn cubic metres by 2017, a seven per cent annual growth rate over the next four years.

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