The Gulf Petro-product Company EC has announced last week plans to invest SR1.12 billion in a paraffin and linear alkyl benzene project to be set up in Jubail industrial city.
The General Investment Authority has issued license to the project, which will be first of its kind in the Gulf region, said the Arab News, noting that the project will have a capacity of 120,000 tons a year of normal-paraffin and 100,000 tons of LAB.
According to the Saudi news service, the production of N-paraffin and LAB which are intermediate chemicals used in the production of detergents, is scheduled begin by the middle of 2003.
Gulf Petro-product is a 50-50 joint venture between Tamilnadu Petroproduct Ltd. of India and SOLP.
Greenberg said TPL, one of the largest producers of N-paraffin and LAB in India, is a publicly traded company with more than 180,000 shareholders.
James L. Greenberg, managing director of DevCorp International E.C was quoted by the Arab News as saying that “the ongoing discussions with potential Saudi partners will lead to the establishment of this joint venture to be 60 percent owned by the Gulf Petroproduct Ltd. and 40 owned by a coalition of Saudi partners.”
Greenberg added that the SOLP was developed under the Saudi Economic Offset Program and invests in economically feasible projects in the Kingdom.
Launched with an initial investment of $25 million from the US company Raytheon, the SOLP’s capital base has recently been expanded with Thales, formerly Thompson CSF, pumping $10 million into the project – Albawaba.com
