JEDDAH — Saudi Aramco has held a ceremony to celebrate the signing of eight new engineering, procurement and construction contracts covering its $6 billion Jizan oil refinery and terminal. Contracts were signed with Hanwha Engineering & Construction, JGC Corporation, Hyundai Saudi Arabia, SK Engineering & Construction, Petrofac Saudi Arabia, Hitachi Plant Technologies and Tecnicas Reunidas to build various parts of the plant over a 12km site. Local company Al-'Ali Al-Ajmi Group has also signed a deal to prepare the site. When complete in late 2016, the refinery will process 400,000 barrels of oil per day. Khalid A. Al-Falih, president and CEO of Saudi Aramco, said: “The Jazan Refinery and Terminal Project will provide more than 1,000 direct jobs in addition to 4,000 indirect jobs. A multiple-pier marine terminal will be constructed as part of the refinery to supply it with crude oil and support the refined products export operations,” Al-Falih said. Speaking at the signing, Prince Mohammad N. Abdulaziz, Amir of the Jazan Area, said: “We hope this will be only the beginning for further projects in the Jazan Economic City. “On my own behalf and on behalf of the people of the Jazan Area, I would like to express the utmost gratitude to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz, for his attention and follow-up on the development of the Jazan Area, in order for it to take its appropriate economic place locally and regionally. “I also commend the efforts the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources and Saudi Aramco exerted to launch this project.” Abdullatif HE Abdullatif A. Al-Othman, Governor and chairman of the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority's board of directors, described the project as critical to the development of the Jizan Economic City (JEC) project. “Work is underway to develop the required plans to accelerate the JEC's infrastructure construction works in order to attract industrial and service investments, provide appropriate job opportunities for the area's people and form the nucleus of diversified economic activities,” he said. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources is currently assessing the potential for producing titanium from locally-found ilmenite through a $1.4 bilion industrial complex that would create up to 1,600 jobs. The ministry is looking to use ilmenite found in the Qahma region and around the coast of the Southern Province to feed an integrated manufacturing plant that would be capable of producing 500,000 metric tons per annum (MTA) of titanium ore and 235 metric tons of cast iron. A third plant will produce 20 MTA of titanium powder and a further specialist plant could be built which will produce high-tech finished and semi-finished titanium parts used in oil & gas, power, desalination and chemicals plants. High-tech parts could also be produced for use in aircraft and in organ transplants. The ministry is also assessing a project to produce silicon from quartz ore at a Jizan plant, which it can integrate with a $140 million silicon polymer production plant set to generate 300 jobs. Accompanying an announcement on the signing of eight engineering and construction contracts by Saudi Aramco for the $6 billion Jizan oil refinery building last week, the ministry said the project would also feature a plant capable of producing white pigments used as additives in the plastics industry, and another to produce zirconium oxy chloride used in manufacturing zirconium compounds and catalysts. The project units will be distributed between Jizan's Economc City and Yanbu Industrial City. —SG/ Agencies
