Indian chemicals company to set up downstream joint venture in Saudi Arabia

Dorf Ketal Chemical will tap into local raw materials and create opportunities within the kingdom

FILE PHOTO: Cars drive past the King Abdullah Financial District, north of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, March 1, 2017. REUTERS/Faisal Al Nasser/File Photo
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An Indian company is planning a joint venture with a Saudi Arabian group to create specialty chemicals in the kingdom.

Dorf Ketal Chemical will team up with TriBonds Chemical, which has headquarters in Dammam, to meet the requirements of the downstream sector of the energy value chain including "fuel additives, plastics, lubricants, oil field chemicals, catalysts and adsorbents".

The announcement follows growing interest in the chemicals industry in Saudi Arabia, the world's largest exporter of oil. The kingdom consolidated its biggest petrochemical company, Sabic with Saudi Aramco, the largest oil-exporting company in the world in 2019 as it looks to diversify into specialty chemicals.

"The new JV brings in proven, patented innovation and technologies, in water and process applications to the region; in addition to decades of global experience and expertise," Abdulaziz Al Qahtani, chairman at TriBonds Chemical said of the agreement with the Indian company.

The company will tap into local raw materials and create opportunities within Saudi Arabia, as part of the kingdom's Vision 2030 strategy.

This week, Sabic began commissioning activities and is preparing to start its joint venture project with energy major ExxonMobil on the US Gulf coast.

The project was agreed on in 2019, the Riyadh-based company said in a filing on Sunday to the Tadawul Stock Exchange, where its shares trade.

It includes the establishment of an ethylene production unit with annual capacity of about 1.8 million tonnes, which will feed two polyethylene units and a monoethylene glycol unit, Sabic said.

Separately on Tuesday, Saipem and Saudi Aramco signed a preliminary agreement to explore the possibility of establishing in Saudi Arabia a new entity for the execution of engineering and construction activities in the energy and infrastructures industrial sector.

"The agreement entails the potential creation, in partnership with local entities and the Public Investment Fund, of an EPC National Champion capable of executing In kingdom the full range of engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) project activities maximising the employment of local resources," Saipem said in a statement.

Saipem has a long-standing collaboration with Saudi Aramco, including onshore and offshore engineering and construction to drilling activities, with onshore and offshore rigs.

Updated: September 21, 2021, 8:50 AM