Access
Login/Register
Supplier Login
In contrast to the slowdown in global chemical production due to a recession in Europe, inventory imbalances and a decline in global manufacturing led by market weakness, the Arabian Gulf region continued to thrive in 2012, outperforming global chemical production which grew by 2.6% in 2012, lower than the 3.8% growth rate in 2011, according to the annual report released by the Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association (GPCA).
Citing 2012 as an outstanding year of production, the total GCC petrochemicals capacity had reached 127.8 million tonnes representing a 5.5% growth from the previous year, the report cited.
Saudi Arabia remains the region's largest petrochemical producer with 86.4 million tonnes of capacity, representing 67.6% of the total regional capacity.
Qatar's production has been performing well and currently accounts for 13.2% of the region's total with production capacity of 16.8 million tonnes. Oman's petrochemicals capacity reached 9.5 million tonnes equivalent to 7.4% of the region's total. These three nations have embarked on strategic capacity upgradesduring the year. Saudi Arabia led with 6 million tonnes additional capacity, followed by Oman which is scheduled to bring online 0.6 million tonnes, and Qatar with 0.2 million tonnes on stream.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is also well on its way with its expansion programme that its production capacity now represents 4.8% of the total regional capacity. Kuwait with 7.6 million tonnes of production capacity contributes 5.9% of the Gulf regional capacity. Bahrain at 1.4 million tonnes accounts for 1.1% of the total regional capacity Saudi Arabia at the forefront Major petrochemical projects in the Middle East are not only targeted to meet the region's demand. More important, these projects are aimed at meeting the current and future needs for raw materials to support various industries.
Saudi Arabia's leading position was further strengthened in 2012 by the development and implementation ofseveral large-scale petrochemical projects aimed at raising capacity in the coming years. Construction began on the Jubail petrochemicals complex, following the formation of Sadara Chemical Company joint venture in 2011. This world-scale complex is expected to produce over 3 TPA of performance, value-adding chemical and plastics products including polyethylene, elastomers, amines, and glycol ethers as well as propylene oxide, propylene glycol, polyols, TDI, and MDI. The facility is scheduled for completion in 2015 and is considered the largest chemicals complex in the world to be built in a single phase, representing a $20 billion investment.
In anticipation of rising demand worldwide, Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) made impressive progress developing two downstream plants in Jubail expected to be the largest integrated MMA/PMMA plant in the world, with capacity of 250,000 TPA of methyl methacrylate (MMA) and 40,000 TPA of polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA).
Great progress was also made by Petro Rabigh, a joint venture between Sumitomo Chemical and Saudi Aramco, which awarded contracts in May 2012 to build a $5 billion Phase II expansion of one of the largest integrated refining and petrochemical complexes in the world.
The Rabigh II Project's main products will include ethylene propylene rubber (EPDM), thermoplastic polyolefin (TPO), methyl methacrylate (MMA) monomer, polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), lowdensity polyethylene/ ethylene vinyl acetate (LDPE/EVA), para-xylene/benzene, cumene and phenol/acetone. Completion of this project is targeted for 2016.
Added to the significant expansion activities taking place in Jubail, KEMYA - a joint venture between SABIC and ExxonMobil, awarded construction of a $3.5 billion elastomers projeAir Foamposite Pro