Korean, EU firms win SABIC, Exxon project

(Reuters) - South Korea's Daelim Industrial, France's Technip and Spain's Tecnicas Reunidas won deals to build a major synthetic rubber project in Saudi Arabia for a joint venture between Saudi Basic Industries Corp and U.S. Exxon Mobil Chemical.
SABIC named the companies in a statement on Monday, without providing further details.
The project will be in Jubail, at the site of Kemya, a company owned by SABIC and Exxon Mobil Chemical.
Industry sources said Daelim won a package for the methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), carbon black, utilities and offsites elements of the project while Tecnicas Reunidas won Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer (EPDM), Polybutadiene rubber (PBR) and styrene butadiene rubber (SBR).
Technip won a halobutyl package, the sources added.
The cost of the project, due to be completed in 2015 is estimated at $3.4 billion, SABIC said, lower than initial estimates.
It would produce 400,000 tonnes per year (tpy) of synthetic rubber, carbon black and specialty polymers for domestic and international markets.
When SABIC and Exxon Mobil Chemical first announced the rubber project, they said the expansion would include the Kemya joint venture between the two companies and their other venture, Yanpet, which is based in Yanbu on the Red Sea coast.
Last year, SABIC said it would build only one rubber plant project with its partner. (Reporting by Reem Shamseddine; Editing by William Hardy)