National Petrochemical Industrialization Company (also known as Tasnee Petrochemicals) and Basell have signed an agreement with respect to building a new integrated polyethylene complex at Al-Jubail Industrial City in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The complex will include a gas cracker and two 400 KT polyethylene plants. One plant, based on Basell’s latest generation Hostalen process, will produce high density PE; the second, based on Basell’s Lupotech T technology, will produce low density PE. Scheduled to start up in 2008, the units will be the largest Hostalen and Lupotech T plants in existence.
The agreement reflects Basell’s intention to take a 25% equity share in the project, while Tasnee Petrochemicals and other Saudi investors, including SIPCHEM and Sahara Petrochemical Company, will take the remaining equity. Project development will be led by Tasnee Petrochemicals.
“Basell and Tasnee Petrochemicals have already cooperated in Saudi Polyolefins Company, a 450 KT per year polypropylene joint venture in Saudi Arabia,” said Volker Trautz, CEO of Basell, who participated in a signing ceremony in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. “Following the excellent success of this joint venture, we look forward to extending our cooperation into polyethylene.”
Last year, Basell announced its intention to build a new 450 KT per year polypropylene plant and propane dehydrogenation unit in Saudi Arabia with Sahara Petrochemical Company. Trautz said, “Bringing together both of our Saudi partners, Tasnee Petrochemicals and Sahara Petrochemical Company, into this new polyethylene project strengthens the project and facilitates our ability to implement it in a timely fashion.”
“Basell is the largest polyethylene producer in Europe,” Trautz added, “and this project is part of our strategy to expand our geographic presence by establishing, together with strong local partners, new world class manufacturing facilities with attractive feedstock conditions in close proximity to target markets.”
Just Jansz, President of Basell’s Technology Business, said “Basell’s new Hostalen technology can produce high performance multi-modal HDPE. These grades offer advantages in demanding customer applications such as caps and closures and blow molding, as well as in specialty films, which are among the fastest growing applications in the Middle East.”
Lupotech T is a high pressure tubular reactor process for the production of LDPE and EVA copolymers. “The Lupotech T technology has a long and successful history, but recent advances have further enhanced its competitiveness,” Jansz explained. “It features broad product capability, high conversion rates and stable and flexible operation.”
Basell’s complete portfolio of licensed technologies includes:
• Spheripol – polypropylene technology for the production of homopolymer, random and heterophasic copolymers.
• Spherizone – next generation polypropylene technology based on new multi-zone reactor technology.
• Spherilene – swing gas phase process for the production of LLDPE and HDPE.
• Hostalen - low-pressure slurry process for the production of bimodal HDPE.
• Lupotech G – fluidised bed gas phase process for the production of HDPE and MDPE.
• Lupotech T – high pressure tubular reactor process for the production of LDPE and EVA copolymers.
Basell also produces and commercialises advanced catalyst systems which are sold under the Avant trade name.
Basell is the world's largest producer of polypropylene and advanced polyolefin products, a leading supplier of polyethylene and catalysts, and a global leader in the development and licensing of polypropylene and polyethylene processes. Basell, together with its joint ventures, has manufacturing facilities around the world and sells products in more than 120 countries. Additional information about Basell is available at www.basell.com.
For more information contact Michelle Talmo, Basell Corporate Communications, at +1 410 996 1366, +1 302 438 6574 or michelle.talmo@basell.com.
