JEDDAH, 29 November 2004 — Jubail is set to become the industrial capital of Saudi Arabia. A second industrial park is coming up in this eastern port city and a top government official has said it would attract investment projects worth SR130 billion.
Crown Prince Abdullah is expected to lay the foundation stone shortly for the multibillion riyal industrial city project, Jubail-II, according to Prince Saud ibn Abdullah ibn Thunayyan, chairman of Royal Commission, which runs the twin industrial cities of Jubail and Yanbu.
“The new industrial city will attract local and foreign investments worth SR130 billion and create some 55,000 new job opportunities,” the RC chairman said. Jubail-II is expected to provide expansion facility for the industrialization of Jubail and the Kingdom for the next 25 to 30 years.
The new industrial city to be established by the Royal Commission is situated about three kilometers to the west of the existing one. It will be developed in four stages at an estimated cost of about SR13 billion.
Royal Commission will provide all the infrastructural facilities including roads, utilities (gas, electricity, seawater cooling, potable water, waste water treatment, feedstock and product pipeline corridor to King Fahd Industrial Port, etc.) including the port expansion. The utilities for the new industrial park will be extended from the existing park across Saudi Aramco’s 1.5-km wide Kuwait Ras Tanura (KRT) corridor. The construction activities for site development and for extending the utilities across the KRT corridor will start shortly. Bechtel is managing and supervising the projects on behalf of Royal commission. Jubail-II is expected to have primary industries similar to the existing one. Development of the first phase is expected to be completed by 2007 and the first industry may start production by 2009. The subsequent phases of the Jubail-II project will be progressively developed as the demand for new sites increases.
The existing industrial city (Jubail-I) houses a number of major petrochemical plants belonged to Saudi Arabian Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC).
They include: Jubail Petrochemicals Company (Kemya), Saudi Petrochemicals Company (Sadaf), the Arabian Petrochemicals Company (Petrokemya), the Oriental Petrochemicals Company (Sharq), the Saudi-European Petrochemicals Company (Ibn Zahr)
Other major SABIC industries are: the Saudi Iron and Steel Company (Hadeed), the Saudi Methanol Company (Al-Razi), Jubail Fertilizer Company (Samad), the National Methanol Company (Ibn Sina), the National Industrial Gas Company (Gas), the National Plastics Company (Ibn Hayyan) and the Saudi Chemical Fertilizer Company (Ibn Al-Bytar).
It also houses non-SABIC companies such as Sasref (Saudi Aramco Shell Refinery), NPIC (National Petrochemical and Investment Company), SIPCHEM and Saudi Chevron Petrochemical Co. In addition to the above primary industries, there are several secondary and support industries in the city.
The advanced infrastructure of Jubail is the cornerstone, which has allowed the various industrial, commercial and social sectors to flourish in the city. Jubail infrastructure has the capability to operate continuously without failure of power or supplies in any of the existing facilities while meeting community requirements within modern high living standards.
This massive industrial complex in Jubail stands as a symbol of the government’s vision of Saudi Arabia’s future development. The Industrial Zone covers an area of 8,000 hectares, or approximately eighty kilometers. The residential area is composed of eight localities built on an adjacent island linked to the mainland. There are 40,000 inhabitants. The area has the capacity to accommodate 375,000 people in modern up-to-date houses.