11 billion dollar agreement between Saudi Arabia and France.
According to Reuters, the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Aramco) and the French company “Total” announced on Saturday in a joint statement the signing of an agreement worth 11 billion dollars to build a new petrochemical complex in Saudi Arabia.
It is said that this new petrochemical complex is the result of the cooperation between Total and Aramco and is located near the shores of the Persian Gulf and the city of Jubail in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia.
The final investment decision to build the new complex was made in December 2022, but Saturday’s agreement marks the official start of construction. The signing ceremony of the agreement was held on Saturday in the presence of “Amin Nasser”, the president and CEO of Aramco, and “Patrick Pouyan”, the president and CEO of Total, in Dhahran. Nasser said the project is “part of Aramco’s strategy for growth” and will help the entire Saudi economy.
Aramco is the largest oil exporting company in the world and Total is one of the seven largest oil companies in the world. The “Amiral” complex is supposed to include the largest mixed steam cracker among the six Arab countries of the Persian Gulf. Its annual production capacity will include 1.65 million tons of ethylene and other industrial gases.
It is expected that another four billion dollars of investment will be attracted to this project and about 7 thousand direct and indirect jobs will be created in Saudi Arabia. The products of this collection will help a wide range of industries: from laundry and food to car and tire sectors.
The construction contracts of the complex have been awarded to seven companies in different countries, including South Korea’s Hyundai Engineering and Construction Company, Italy’s Meyer, China’s Sinopec Engineering Group in Saudi Arabia, and four Saudi companies, Mohammad Ali Al-Suwailam, Mubarak Marai Al-Salumi, Mufarah Marzouq Al-Harbi and “Golf Consolidated Contracts.”
Last year, Saudi Aramco announced that it had achieved a record profit of $48.4 billion in the second quarter of 2022, which was a 90.2% increase compared to the same period last year, thanks to the increase in oil prices in 2022.
After registering a profit of 39.5 billion dollars in the first quarter, Aramco set a record for the second quarter in a row. This is the highest quarterly profit since the company went public in late 2019.
Aramco shares have risen more than 25 percent this year, with oil and natural gas prices at multi-year highs after Western sanctions against Russia put pressure on an already tight global market.
