SABIC is planning to build a plant to convert crude oil into petrochemicals to take advantage of growing demand. In a statement to the Tadawul Stock Exchange, the company said that the crude oil to chemicals complex in Ras Al Khair, eastern Saudi Arabia, is expected to convert 400000 barrels of oil into chemicals every day.

SABIC is the largest petrochemical producer in the Middle East. The latest project is part of its strategic growth plan and will help expand the manufacture of Saudi petrochemical products. Saudi Aramco, the largest crude oil exporter with 70% shares of SABIC, has been investing billions of dollars in downstream projects to obtain more value from its crude oil production.

Saudi Aramco said it would build a $7 billion refinery integrated petrochemical steam cracking unit in South Korea through its S-Oil department. The steam cracking unit converts crude oil into petrochemical raw materials, and is expected to produce up to 3.2 million tons of petrochemical products annually, including the capacity to produce high-value polymers. With more and more consumers turning to electric vehicles, the petrochemical industry is expected to become the main driving force for crude oil demand in the coming decades. According to data from Precedence Research, the value of this industry is expected to reach about 800 billion dollars by 2030, higher than about 475 billion dollars in 2020.

According to the data of the International Energy Agency, petrochemical products will account for more than one third of the increase in oil demand by 2030 and nearly half of the increase in oil demand by 2050, ahead of trucks, aviation and shipping. The Energy Agency said that by 2030, their production will consume an additional 56 billion cubic meters of natural gas, equivalent to about half of Canada's current total natural gas consumption.

Sabic confirmed that it is committed to continuing to develop crude oil to chemicals technology, which will help improve the cost-effectiveness and value creation opportunities of the energy and chemical industry in a wider range. Sabic reported that the profit in the second quarter increased by 3.8%, because the increase in average sales price and sales volume led to an increase in revenue.

Looking forward to the second half of 2022, Sabic expects that its profit margin will face pressure due to the slowdown of global economic growth, China's blockade, European conflicts and continuous supply chain challenges. The International Monetary Fund has lowered its growth forecast for the global economy in 2023 and warned that as the economy continues to be affected by the war in Ukraine, the expansion of inflationary pressure and the slowdown of China's economy, the cost of living crisis will emerge. Keywords: overseas news, engineering news

The fund maintained its forecast for the global economy in 2022, and lowered the forecast for next year to 2.7%, 0.2 percentage points lower than the previous forecast. The International Monetary Fund said at the time that this was the weakest growth situation since 2001. In addition to the acute phase of the global financial crisis and the COVID-19 epidemic in 2008, it reflected the sharp slowdown of the largest economy.Editor/Xing Wentao