Petrokemya lets contract for Al Jubail complex

Arabian Petrochemical Co. (Petrokemya), a wholly owned subsidiary of Saudi Basic Industries Corp., has let a contract to KBR Inc. for work related to the expansion of a butadiene plant at its 5.15 million-tonne/year petrochemical complex in Al Jubail, Saudi Arabia.

KBR will provide front-end engineering design for the debottlenecking and expansion of the butadiene extraction plant, KBR said.

The contract comes as part of Petrokemya’s plans to boost capacity at the 123-kt/year butadiene plant, which was built in 1993, in order to meet growing demand on the regional petrochemical market, KBR said.

Neither a value of the contract or a timetable for the project was disclosed.

SABIC identified the need for the butadiene extraction plant’s debottlenecking and capacity expansion during a 2013 revamp project at the Al Jubail olefins complex, according to the company’s 2013 annual report.