Petro Rabigh to restart operations after maintenance on Dec 3

Rabigh Refining and Petrochemical Co. (Petro Rabigh) expects to restart its operations on Thursday after the completion of mechanical and logistical maintenance work, the company said in a statement on Tadawul.

Meanwhile, further maintenance will be carried out at the high olefins fluidized catalytic cracking (HOFCC) units, which are expected to resume operations on Dec. 30.

Petro Rabigh added that the related financial impact of the overhaul process will be detailed later.

Facilities at the sites include a 600,000 ton/year linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) plant, a 300,000 tonne/year high density polyethylene (HDPE) line and a 700,000 tonne/year polypropylene (PP) line.

Petro Rabigh is a joint venture between Saudi Arabian Oil Co. (Saudi Aramco) and Japan’s Sumitomo Chemical.

The company’s board approved in February the scheduled maintenance plan for all facilities, where operations were said to be fully suspended for 50 days starting from Oct. 4. However, Rabigh later pushed the start date to Oct.11.

Every four years, Petro Rabigh and other companies operating in the refining and petrochemical industry in Saudi Arabia schedule maintenance periods to ensure the safety and stability of operations.