Saudi Aramco will invest US $7 billion to build the largest petrochemical project in South Korea

Saudi Aramco said on Thursday that it planned to invest $7 billion in the plant of its South Korean subsidiary S-Oil to produce more high-value petrochemical products.

S-Oil is an oil refining enterprise in South Korea. Saudi Aramco owns more than 63% of its shares and is its holding company.

Saudi Aramco said in the statement that the project, named "Shaheen (Eagle in Arabic)", is the largest investment of Aramco in South Korea, aiming to build a large integrated refinery and one of the largest petrochemical steam cracking units in the world.

The construction of the new plant will start in 2023 and be completed in 2026. Saudi Aramco said that the annual production capacity of the plant will reach 3.2 million tons of petrochemical products. The petrochemical steam cracking unit is expected to process by-products from crude oil processing, including the production of ethylene from naphtha and waste gas. The unit is also expected to produce propylene, butadiene and other basic chemicals.

The statement pointed out that after the completion of the project, the output of petrochemical products of S-Oil will double to 25%.

Amin Nasser, CEO of Saudi Aramco, said in the statement that the growth of global petrochemical demand is expected to accelerate, partly because the consumption of petrochemical products in Asian economies is growing. The project can well meet the growing local demand.