RIYADH, 29 September — Saudi Arabia’s Public Investments Fund (PIF) has agreed to provide SR1.35 billion ($360 million) to Jubail Chevron Phillips Company in loans, a press statement by the organization said.
Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) has licensed Jubail Chevron Phillips, a $1 billion petrochemical project between US firm Chevron Phillips Chemical Company and the Saudi Industrial Investment Group (SIIG).
The PIF statement said the fund would also finance a Saudi network project to exchange information. PIF has so far provided loans worth more than SR52.5 billion to Saudi Basic Industries Corporation, Saudi Aramco, Petromin, Saudi Arabian Airlines and other firms.
"Petrochemical industries have received the lion’s share of PIF loans worth SR26 billion," the organization said. The fund owns investments worth SR43 billion including shares in companies inside and outside the country. PIF was established in 1970 to finance major public and private projects.
Jubail Chevron Phillips, which is expected to start production in 2006, will manufacture new products such as benzene, ethylbenzene, styrene and propylene.
The existing Saudi Chevron Phillips facility, which started up in 2000, produces benzene, utilizing Chevron Philip’s proprietary Aromax technology, cyclohexane and motor gasoline.
Chevron Philips is one of the world’s top producers of olefins and polyolefins and is a leading supplier of aromatics, alpha olefins, styrenics and specialty chemicals.
The company has assets of almost $6 billion and is owned equally by ChevronTexaco Corporation and Phillips Petroleum Company.
Saudi Industrial Investment Group is a consortium of leading Saudi businessmen and several Saudi public joint stock companies focused on industrial investment in the petrochemical industry in Saudi Arabia. The chairman of the group is Abdul Aziz Al-Quraishi.
Saudi Chevron Petrochemical Company, which holds a 50 percent stake in the new Jubail factory has changed its name to Chevron Phillips Saudi Arabia following the merger of petrochemical operations worldwide by international giants Chevron and Phillips.
