Saudi Aramco sees direct crude oil to chemicals (COTC) technology as an important part of its strategy to extract more value from its produced crude oil. However, the expectation of Sabic, Aramco’s erstwhile COTC project partner and now a subsidiary of the larger firm, that Aramco would announce its decision on whether to proceed with the project by the end of June was not fulfilled.
Before Aramco completed the $69.1bn purchase of sovereign wealth fund PIF’s 70% stake in Sabic on 16 June (MEES, 19 June), Sabic chief executive Yousef al-Benyan was insistent that “nothing at this point that can really change this timeline” for an end-June decision (MEES, 15 May). (CONTINUED - 783 WORDS)
