Aramco considers expansion at US refinery

Saudi Aramco took the first steps to integrating a petrochemicals business into the United States’ biggest oil refinery, which is operated by its subsidiary Motiva Enterprises.

Aramco chief executive Amin Nasser signed an agreement worth $8 billion to $10bn with Honeywell UOP and Technip FMC to study petchems production technology for use in a chemical plant the company is considering building at the Port Arthur refinery.

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who was winding up a three-week visit to the US, was present at the signing in Houston, Texas, on Saturday along with Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al Falih and US Energy Secretary Rick Perry.

“These agreements signal our plans for expansion into petrochemicals,” Motiva’s chief executive Brian Coffman said. Aramco, which wants to develop its downstream business as the government prepares to sell up to 5 per cent of the world’s largest oil firm in an initial public offering by next year, wants to use oil as a major petchems feedstock.

Mr Coffman also said Motiva was evaluating boosting the 603,000 barrel per day Port Arthur refinery’s capacity to 1 million bpd per day or 1.5m bpd, which would make it the largest in the world.

The aromatics unit for which Honeywell’s technology is being considered under one of the MoUs would convert benzene and paraxylene, byproducts of petrol production, into 2m tonnes annually of feedstocks for chemicals and plastics. The other agreement

[The final investment decision] is dependent on strong economics, competitive incentives and regulatory support ARAMCO

would allow Aramco to use Technip’s mixed-feed ethylene production technologies in the US. The technology would produce 2m tonnes a year of ethylene, which is used to make plastics, Motiva said.

The final investment decision on setting up a multi-billion-dollar petchems plant at Port Arthur is not expected until 2019, and is “dependent on strong economics, competitive incentives and regulatory support,” Aramco said in a statement.

Mr Coffman did not provide a timeline for the possible expansion of the Port Arthur refinery’s crude oil processing capacity.

“That’s something we’re evaluating, we’re studying for in the future,” he said.

The 1.2m bpd Reliance Industries refinery in Jamnagar, India, has the world’s largest crude oil processing capacity.

Aramco said last year that it would invest $18bn in Motiva to expand the refinery and move into petrochemical production.