Saudi Aramco begins talks for product sales from Fujian petchems complex
Dubai (Platts)--27Nov2012/440 am EST/940 GMT
Saudi Aramco has begun talking to prospective buyers for products from
its Fujian Refining and Petrochemical Company (FREP) complex at Quangzhou in
China's Fujian province, a company source said Tuesday at a conference in
Dubai.
"We will make our first offer in early January 2013," the source said on
the sidelines of the Seventh Annual Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals
Association annual forum.
Another source close to Saudi Aramco said it is looking forward to
selling products both via long-term contracts and into the Asian spot
markets.
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The company had previously been expected to start offering FREP products
in November.
Saudi Aramco will sell about 330,000 mt/year of polymers from FREP, the
source said. This will include about 100,000 mt/year of low density
polyethylene, 100,000 mt/year of linear low density polyethylene, 100,000
mt/year of high density polyethylene and 130,000 mt/year of polypropylene.
FREP is a joint venture between Fujian Petrochemical Co. (50%),
ExxonMobil China Petroleum and Petrochemical Co. (25%) and Saudi Aramco Sino
Co. (25%).
Fujian Petrochemical is a 50:50 JV between Sinopec and the Fujian
provincial government.
FREP runs an 800,000 mt/year steam cracker, a 400,000 mt/year PP plant,
a 400,000 mt/year LLDPE plant, a 400,000 mt/year HDPE plant, a 120,000
mt/year butadiene plant, a 700,000 mt/year paraxylene plant and a 260,000
mt/year benzene plant at Quanzhou.
Sales of Aramco's share of products produced by FREP have so far been
handled by Saudi Basic Industries Co., or Sabic, which has a sales network in
China. Saudi Aramco recently set up an office at Quanzhou and hired its own
staff to handle the sales of its products.
--Shashank Shekhar, shashank_shekhar@platts.com
--Edited by Martin O'Rourke, martin_orourke@platts.com