en.Wedoany.com Reported - Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company (GPIC) has awarded a contract to Fluor Corp. to perform front-end engineering design (FEED) for an aromatics plant at a proposed petrochemical complex in Sitra, Bahrain. The complex is planned to be built on 60 hectares of reclaimed land.
Fluor stated on July 21 that, as part of the contract, it will provide FEED studies for the aromatics plant. The plant is designed to produce 1.2 million tons per year of paraxylene and 500,000 tons per year of benzene, utilizing commercially proven process technologies.
Paraxylene and benzene are key basic raw materials in the production of plastics, polyester fibers, and packaging materials. Fluor noted that once operational, the plant will help meet global demand for high-performance consumer and industrial products, while expanding GPIC's existing facility operations in Sitra.
GPIC's current complex, which uses Bahraini natural gas as feedstock, has a production capacity of approximately 1.2 million tons per day of ammonia, 1.2 million tons per day of methanol, and 1.7 million tons per day of urea.
Neither Fluor nor GPIC disclosed details regarding the timeline for completion of the proposed aromatics plant.
GPIC is a joint venture with equal shareholdings of 33.3% each held by Bahrain Petroleum Co., SABIC Agri-Nutrients Investment Co., and Kuwait's Petrochemical Industries Co. (PIC).
