Motiva acquires Port Arthur chem facility: Correction

Corrects Port Arthur production capacity in second-to-last sentence.

Saudi Aramco US downstream subsidiary Motiva will re-enter petrochemicals by the end of the year through the purchase of Flint Hills Resources' ethylene and polypropelene facility in Port Arthur, Texas.

Neither company disclosed terms for the transaction. Representatives could not be immediately reached for comment.

Motiva previously earmarked $18bn for expansions along the US Gulf coast, including petrochemicals expansions to tie to its 630,000 b/d Port Arthur refinery — North America's largest.

Motiva previously operated chemicals facilities in Louisiana when Aramco and oil major Shell operated Motiva as a joint venture. But those sites went to Shell when the two companies broke up the Motiva joint venture in 2017.

Former Motiva chief executive Dan Romasko lamented last year that the company had "the largest refinery in America that does not have any chemicals tied to it."

"We will fix it," Romasko said at the time.

Koch Industries subsidiary Flint Hills operates a roughly 635,000 t/yr ethylene cracker at the Port Arthur facility.

The company also operates petrochemicals facilities in Houston and Longview, Texas, and in Peru and Joliet, Illinois.