Saudi PetroRabigh posted a SR402.3 million ($107 million) loss in the second quarter after a two-month closure of its refinery slashed sales. The joint venture of state-owned oil company Saudi Aramco and Japan's Sumitomo Chemicals posted a net profit of SR121.8 million in the second quarter of 2010. But the closure of the complex for maintenance from April 21-June 30 hit sales for the comparable period of 2011 hard. "The reason for the loss in the second quarter... is the substantial decrease in sales resulting from loss of production during the shutdown period of the complex for test and inspection maintenance," the firm said in a statement. Operational losses for the second quarter were SR389 million, compared to a profit of SR83 million in the same quarter last year, it said. PetroRabigh started operations at its $10.1 billion complex in 2009. Aramco and Sumitomo Chemical each have 37.5-percent stakes in the joint venture, while the rest is publicly held. The refinery, which caters mainly to the Saudi, European and North African markets, can process 400,000 barrels of crude per day, accounting for about 19 percent of Saudi Arabia's total refining capacity. PetroRabigh can produce an annual 18 million tons of refined products and 2.4 million tons of petrochemical products. Ziad S. Al-Labban, President and CEO of Petro Rabigh, said in earlier published report that "it is through the investment which PetroRabigh has made in its integrated refining and petrochemical complex that the company will create more value from hydrocarbon resources of the Kingdom through conversion into higher valued refined and petrochemical products, which will support downstream projects. The company's investments will create jobs for Saudis, support expansion of the Saudi economy through its RPP and create value for its shareholders through its profitable operations." PetroRabigh is expected to complete its 275,000 tpa phenol project in Rabigh in 2014, John Derbyshire, president of KBR's technology division, said. The company is providing the basic engineering and technology for the project, and is working with Japanese engineering and construction firm JGC Corp. on the front-end engineering and design (FEED) package. The phenol project forms part of PetroRabigh's plans to widen the product slate and debottleneck the ethane cracker at its refinery and petrochemicals complex.
