The current ramping up of throughput at the Satorp refinery in Jubail brings Saudi Arabia’s first production of paraxylene. The paraxylene unit, which will produce 700,000 tons/year of this petrochemical ‘building block’, marks a milestone in a major transformation of the Saudi downstream petroleum industry.
While Satorp’s paraxylene will initially be exported, state petroleum giant Saudi Aramco is pushing a major economic development program that will increasingly see aromatics and other primary petrochemicals used to create high value plastics and chemicals for processing by local manufacturers. (CONTINUED - 564 WORDS)
