RIYADH: The startup of new petrochemicals units in Saudi Arabia should push the kingdom’s domestic crude oil demand to 2.9 million b/d by the end of the year, up 100,000 b/d from 2016, Riyadh-based Jadwa Investments said in a research note Tuesday.
New power plants are due to come online later this year, and new petrochemical units at the expanded PetroRabigh II complex at Jubail on the Red Sea, is expected to reach full capacity at the end of the year. PetroRabigh is a joint venture of state-oil giant Saudi Aramco and Japan’s Sumitomo, producing 2.4 million mt/year of chemicals. The expanded complex will add another 2.6 million mt/year of capacity. It was originally due for start-up in 2016, but has fallen behind schedule.