Rabigh Refining and Petrochemical Company (PetroRabigh) announced that it will suspend the operations of its ethane cracker unit for 21 days. The suspension will start mid November, in order to complete the temporary maintenance and safety works as well as to boost the unit production efficiency, reported Reuters.

The company stated that the suspension will negatively affect the firm’s fourth-quarter earnings by around $100m. It is the second time in recent months that the firm has shut the unit, as PetroRabigh shut the cracker down as a precaution on June 23 to work on damage to one of the unit’s turbines, restarting it on July 14, informed Mubasher News.

PetroRabigh is a Saudi Arabia-based company which produces and markets refined hydrocarbon and petrochemicals. The company was a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and Japan’s Sumitomo Chemical. It utilizes 400,000b/d of crude oil and 1.2mt/y of ethane as primary feedstock to produce a variety of refined petroleum products and petrochemical products. The refinery has been producing 8mt of heavy oil, 5.3mt of light oil, 3mt of naphtha and 2.6mt of kerosene annually, according to PetroRabigh’s website.