ExxonMobil, SABIC let contract for USGC petrochemical project

A joint venture of Saudi Arabian Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) and ExxonMobil Corp. has let a contract to Savage Services, Midvale, Utah, to design, build, and operate a rail terminal to support the JV’s recently approved Gulf Coast Growth Ventures (GCGV) project, a 1.8 million-tonne/year ethane cracking complex in San Patricio County, Tex., near Corpus Christi (OGJ Online, July 25, 2016).

Scheduled to be completed in 2021 ahead of the project’s planned start-up by 2022, the rail terminal will be located adjacent to the GCGV complex and will handle railcars transporting polyethylene, Savage said.

Savage will provide multiple services at the site, including rail switching and indexing, railcar washing and loading, railcar repairs, and facility maintenance, the service provider said.

A value of the contract was not disclosed.

This latest contract follows final environmental regulatory approval in June for the ExxonMobil-SABIC JV to proceed with construction of the GCGV project, which—alongside the ethane steam cracker and two polyethylene units—also will include a 1.1 million-tpy monoethylene glycol unit (OGJ Online, June 13, 2019).

The JV also previously confirmed it has let engineering, procurement, and construction contracts for the GCGV project to John Wood Group PLC; a consortium of McDermott International Inc. and Turner Industries Group LLC; and a consortium of Chiyoda Corp. and Kiewit Corp. (OGJ Online, June 26, 2019).

Project approval follows ExxonMobil and SABIC’s 2018 formation of the 50-50 GCGV JV—under which ExxonMobil will act as site operator—and the April 2017 selection of the San Patricio County site, which will allow ExxonMobil and SABIC to take advantage of the region’s existing infrastructure to capture competitive pricing for US natural gas feedstock as well as access to rising demand for ethylene-based products in overseas export markets (OGJ Online, May 7, 2018).

Alongside forming part of SABIC’s growth strategy to build petrochemical installations in key markets—including the Americas—to address industry demand and achieve the company’s 2025 strategy, the proposed multibillion GCGV project also is one of the developments included as part of ExxonMobil’s 10-year, $20-billion Growing the Gulf expansion initiative announced in early 2017 (OGJ Online, Mar. 9, 2017).

Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].