Al Mady ... reaping the rewards of innovation

IN A major move, Sabic has announced plans to develop the world’s first oil-to-chemicals complex in the kingdom.

Prince Saud bin Abdullah bin Thenayan Al Saud, chairman of Sabic and the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu, says Sabic is in the last stages of preliminary studies to build the world’s first oil-to-chemicals (OTC) complex in Saudi Arabia.

Prince Saud made the announcement as he inaugurated the Sabic Innovation Day.

The project, to be located either in Yanbu or Jubail after the completion of the feasibility studies, is likely to generate more than 100,000 jobs.

The Innovation Day is a showcase of Sabic’s technological achievements around the world.

“Saudi Arabia is on a journey to grow, diversify itself, reduce its energy intensity and move toward a knowledge economy. To this end, it requires the commitment and effective execution of all its engines. Today, we will demonstrate how Sabic is well on the way to transforming itself into a solutions provider to its destination markets and delivering value to its customers via technology. All of this means innovation, which is commercialized invention,” the prince says.

Mohamed Al Mady, Sabic vice chairman and CEO, welcomed key external stakeholders, including government officials, key Sabic customers, businessmen, academicians, research partners, and media representatives.

Notable speakers included: Professor Vijay Govindarajan, Coxe Distinguished Professor at Tuck at Dartmouth; Professor Jean-Lou Chameau, President of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (Kaust); and Dr. Mohammad Al Suwaiyel, President, King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST).

Al Mady says: “Sabic is today seeing the rewards of innovation leadership and driving the technology agenda in key areas of our business.”

He says: “The OTC complex will set a new competitive standard and establish Saudi Arabia as a technology leader in the petrochemical industry. OTC technology allows for the conversion of crude oil to petrochemical products at the highest ever achieved conversion rate in a competitive and sustainable way.”

The OTC complex will comprise an innovative configuration of unit operations that, in combination, will generate the world’s highest yield conversion of oil to chemicals.

Sabic expects to utilise around 10 million metric tonnes of crude oil at the complex to produce petrochemicals, and eventually advanced speciality chemicals in line with Sabic’s 2025 strategy. The complex is expected to start by the end of the current decade and will provide an aggregated total of around 100,000 new jobs, according to current company projections.

The project comes at a time when the company is focussing strongly on research and innovation to produce new materials to face global market challenges.

According to Al Mady , the plant, which is expected to be operational at the end of this decade, will consume about 10 million tons of crude oil to produce petrochemicals.

“This new technology will enable the Kingdom to extract value added from the crude oil compared to the production of fuel and eventually will improve the level of our income,” Al Mady says.

Sabic also signed a contract with Kaust with additional support to the university amounting to SR10 million during the event.