PetroRabigh supports Saudi domestic PE sales

Saudi Arabia's petrochemical producer PetroRabigh is supporting domestic polyethylene (PE) sales for its domestic customers, as other producers in the country reel from feedstock supply shortages.

PetroRabigh, located at Rabigh on Saudi's west coast, is operating its PE units normally.

Saudi producers over the weekend announced production issues because of curbed petrochemical feedstock supplies in the aftermath of attacks on key oil installations at Abqaiq and Khurais. These producers included Sabic and Sadara, whose facilities are based in Jubail on the east coast, located only 180km from Abqaiq. The weekend attacks at the Abqaiq plant, the world's largest crude processing facility, and the Khurais oil field infrastructure forced state-owned Saudi Aramco to shut in 5.7mn b/d of crude output.

PetroRabigh is expected to assist affected Saudi-based plastic converters affected by allocation cuts from the producers. PetroRabigh, a joint venture between Aramco and Japanese trading house Sumitomo, operates a 600,000 t/yr linear low-density polyethylene/high-density polyethylene (HDPE) swing line, 300,000 t/yr HDPE unit and 160,000 t/yr low-density polyethylene plant. It is a diversified petrochemical company, also producing downstream products like ethylene glycol, acetone and phenol.

Aramco Chemicals and Sumitomo are both distributing PetroRabigh polymer products in Asia. PetroRabigh customers in Asia-Pacific were informed yesterday that their September shipments will be delivered on time.