RIYADH – Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) and affiliates of ExxonMobil announced Monday they will construct a world-scale specialty elastomers facility at the Jubail Petrochemical Company (KEMYA) manufacturing joint venture. The facility will be integrated with the existing Al-Jubail complex and completion is anticipated in 2015. Both companies have approved the next stage of project development, the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) phase. With a total investment of $3.4 billion, which will be financed from shareholder and or third party debt, the facility will have the capacity to produce up to 400,000 tons per year of rubber including halobutyl, styrene butadiene, polybutadiene, and ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) rubbers, thermoplastic specialty polymers, and carbon black to serve local markets, the Middle East and Asia. Mohamed Al-Mady, SABIC Vice Chairman and CEO, said "the KEMYA elastomers facility demonstrates our commitment to build and champion a first-rate rubber industry in Saudi Arabia that supports job creation, develops downstream industries and helps diversify the national economy. The strategic partnership between Sabic and ExxonMobil provides the strength of industry-leading competitive assets, introduces new specialty products to the Kingdom and offers global marketing and supply capability of exceptional quality. We will provide the building blocks for our customers to successfully compete on a domestic and international scale in markets for a wide range of applications." "ExxonMobil is proud to be a leading foreign investor in, and customer of, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," said Steve Pryor, president of ExxonMobil Chemical. "This first-of-its-kind elastomers facility in the Kingdom creates a platform that will support the development of a rubber industry, which is designed to produce a broad range of consumer products." An expanding transportation infrastructure in the Middle East and Asia-Pacific region has created strong demand for rubber products. The new world-scale KEMYA elastomers project will help meet this ever-growing demand. The facility will rely on commercially competitive, high-impact technologies, including proprietary ExxonMobil EPDM, thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) and halobutyl rubber technologies. – SG
