Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) started commercial operations for polybutadiene industrial rubber part of its Al-Jubail Petrochemical Company (KEMYA) joint venture with a unit of Exxon Mobil, Reuters reported. The site, located in Al-Jubail, 70km north of Dammam on the east coast of the Kingdom, the capacity to produce about 700,000t/y of ethylene, and over 1.1mt of polyethylene to service the domestic, regional and global markets, according to Agraam.
Furthermore, the $3.4b KEMYA project started trial operations at the ethylene propylene diene-monomer unit, as well asthe thermoplastic specialty polymers and halobutyl rubber units, with commercial operations expected in early 2017.
KEMYA, is a 50-50 joint venture between SABIC and Exxon Chemical Arabia Inc, which is a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil. The petrochemical company. The facility will have the capacity to produce up to 400,000 tonnes per year of rubber including halobutyl, styrene butadiene, polybutadiene, ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) rubbers, and thermoplastic specialty polymers.
