Saudi chemical giant Saudi Basic (Sabic) plans to build a new branch in Houston, hoping to take advantage of shale gas resources in the us to enter the field of chemical industry. Sabic said that the final decision will depend on the time of obtaining the local and environmental licenses. According to the statement, Sabic has taken the US market as a focus of future growth plan, hoping to make full use of the abundant shale gas resources in the US. 20180413144330.jpg With the rise of fuel efficiency standards and the rise of electric vehicles, Saudi Arabia expects the global market to slow down the demand for traditional fuels and plans to increase investment in alternative and chemical products. The abundance of shale gas resources and cheap natural gas make it one of the most profitable places to produce chemicals, which attracted the attention of Sabic.
According to the US chemical Council, Exxon Mobil and Chevron built billions of dollars of factories on the Texas Bay in the end of the project, part of the $188 billion investment plan for several energy giants.
Sabic has set up a joint venture with ExxonMobil to build a ethylene plant in Corpus Christi, Texas, and is expected to make a final investment decision this year. The core feature of the project is the largest ethane cracking plant in the world, which can produce 1 million 800 thousand tons of ethylene.
At this time, in Texas, nearly 20 chemical factories are being built or expanded, most of which are converted into ethylene, such as ethane and propane, which are the main components of the most commonly used petrochemical and polyethylene plastics.
And most of the investment in these chemical plants came from abroad, such as South Africa Sasol, Total in France, South Korea's music company and the Formosa Plastics Corp in Taiwan, which also increased investment in American factories.