Saudi Aramco and Total SA are discussing building a petrochemicals plant alongside a joint refinery project that they are developing in Jubail. The partners began talks more than a year ago about building a cracker that could use byproducts from the joint refinery, Michel Govaerts, Total's general manager for business development in the Middle East and Asia, said on Tuesday. The 400,000 barrel-a-day refinery iGulf coast will cost more than $12 billion, Salem Shaheen, chief executive officer of Saudi Aramco Total Refining and Petrochemical Co., said in March. The new cracker would be in addition to aromatics and olefins units planned to be incorporated in the Jubail refinery, Govaerts said at a conference in Abu Dhabi. Financing for the project is “being finalized,” he said. The Jubail refinery will be the main energy project financing deal this year, HSBC Holdings Plc's Darren Davis said at the conference. Financing for the project will close soon and Aramco is in the market for lending for another refinery planned at Yanbu, said Davis, managing director for HSBC's Middle East resources and energy group. Aramco and state-run Abu Dhabi Oil Refinery Co., known as Takreer, are among Middle Eastern crude producers boosting refining capacity to meet demand at home. Saudi Arabia, holder of the world's largest oil reserves and the biggest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, imports refined products such as gasoline because it lacks capacity to meet domestic demand. Gulf oil producers such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia are expanding into petrochemicals production to benefit further from their oil resources than just selling crude.
