Saudi Aramco and Total signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Daelim, South-Korean petrochemical company, on January 31 to build Polyisobutylene facility, Saudi Aramco announced.

Under the MoU, Daelim plans to build the new 80,000 tons state-of-the-art Polyisobutylene (PIB) plant, which is expected to come on-stream in 2024.

The launch of the Front-End Engineering and Design (FEED) of the plant will start in February 2019 and will be concluded in Q4 2019.

The facility will be located in Saudi Arabia, which will enable Daelim to have access to competitive feedstock and energy, with large infrastructure, to better serve customers in the Middle East and markets across Europe and Asia. In addition, the plant will use feedstock from the Amiral complex in Jubail.

This agreement comes in line with Aramco’s strategy of petrochemical growth.

The PIB is a high value-added chemical product and has a wide range of industrial applications such as adhesives, lubricants and fuel additives.