KBR announced that it has been awarded a front-end engineering design (FEED) contract by Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) for the debottlenecking and expansion of its Petrokemya Butadiene extraction plant in Jubail.

Arabian Petrochemical Company (Petrokemya), a wholly-owned affiliate of SABIC, is one of the largest manufacturing sites in Jubail.

The site has an installed capacity of around 5.15 million metric tons per year of petrochemicals including olefins, PVC/VCM, polystyrene and polyethylene plants in addition to utilities and steam generation.

The butadiene extraction plant was built in 1993 with a capacity of 123 kilotons per year. Petrokemya plans to significantly expand the capacity of the plant.

This expansion is part of Petrokemya and SABIC’s vision and strategic business plan with a view of growing market demands in the downstream petrochemical market.

“KBR is delighted to further strengthen our more than 20-year relationship with SABIC and our commitment to Saudi Arabia through this strategic project,” said Stuart Bradie, KBR’s president and CEO, was quoted as saying in a press release received here.