Saudi Butanol Company (Sabuco) and Saudi Basic Industries (SABIC) have awarded contracts for the construction of a butanol plant and a polyacetal plant respectively, as part of the kingdom’s push to add high value and specialty chemicals to its commodity petrochemicals capacity. A SABIC joint venture has also started production in Jubail of a catalyst used in producing polyethylene and alcohols.

Sabuco – a joint venture between Sadara, Saudi Kayan and Saudi Acrylic Acid Company (SAAC) – signed a contract on 5 July with South Korea’s Daelim for the construction of a butanol plant at Jubail at an expected cost of SR1.1bn ($293.3mn). In a statement to the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul), Saudi Kayan said the design capacity of the plant is 330,000 tons/year of n-butanol and 11,000 t/y of iso-butanol. (CONTINUED - 599 WORDS)