U.S.energy behemoth,
ExxonMobil Corporation
's
(
XOM
)
Saudi Arabia unit - Exxon Chemical Arabia Inc. - in partnership
with Saudi Basic Industries Corporation ("SABIC"), a public company
in Saudi Arabia, intends to build a $3.4 billion world-class
specialty elastomers center at the Al-Jubail Petrochemical Company
("Kemya") manufacturing joint venture.
The plant is expected to be incorporated into the existing
premises of Al-Jubail. The project is estimated to come on line in
2015 with an annual production capacity of about 400,000 tons of
rubber. The annual output will comprise halobutyl, styrene
butadiene, polybutadiene, ethylene propylene diene monomer rubbers,
in addition to thermoplastic specialty polymers and carbon black.
The products will then be supplied to domestic markets, the Middle
East and Asia.
The subsequent phase of project development, which includes
engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) has been agreed
upon by the partners. France's Technip, Spain's Tecnicas Reunidas
and South Korea's Daelim have received the EPC contract from Kemya
for the elastomers facility.
ExxonMobil is the largest foreign investor as well as a key
client of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The new elastomers facility,
designed to generate a wide range of consumer products, will serve
as a model and provide a base for further developments in the
region.
ExxonMobil's balanced operations, strong financial flexibility,
improved efficiency and cost control provide it an edge over
others. The company's continuous efforts to build an unconventional
resource portfolio both in North America and overseas aims at
increasing production through increased exposure to large energy
resources with long reserve life and low field declines. Despite
the collapse in natural gas prices, ExxonMobil expects
unconventional resources to play a dominant role in future supplies
owing to the rapid decline in conventional production.
ExxonMobil - the largest U.S.oil firm by market value ahead of
Chevron Corp.
(
CVX
) - holds a Zacks #3 Rank - equivalent to a Hold rating for a
period of one to three months. For the long term, we maintain a
Neutral recommendation on the stock.
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