The Petro Rabigh joint venture of Saudi Aramco and Japan’s Sumitomo expects a temporary shutdown of the cracker at its refining and petrochemicals complex to reduce its earnings in the second and third quarters by around SR350mn ($93mn). The company told the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) that the final cost will depend on the fluctuation of petchems prices during the period.

Petro Rabigh shut down the cracker in late June as a precautionary measure, following a fault in one of the turbines providing electricity to the cracker. The company now says that a temporary repair of the generator has been completed, allowing the cracker to be restarted until spare parts are obtained from the turbine manufacturer to enable full repair work. (CONTINUED - 291 WORDS)