Saudi PetroRabigh complex back online
Al Khobar, September 15, 2013
Saudi Arabia's PetroRabigh has restarted its petrochemical and refining complex, the company said on Sunday, after a power outage on Wednesday forced it to shut operations.
PetroRabigh, a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and Japan's Sumitomo Chemical, said power supplies from Rabigh Arabian Water and Electricity Co were interrupted for a few hours.
The petrochemical firm, whose facilities include a crude distillation unit (CDU) for the 400,000 barrel per day refinery and an ethane cracker, said the CDU was not affected by the power cut. But some furnaces at the ethane cracker were damaged, which would take 16 days to fix.
As a result, the company will incur around 250 million riyals ($67 million) of losses, which will be reflected in third-quarter earnings, PetroRabigh added.
PetroRabigh shut its complex for about 20 days of maintenance at the start of this year after power and steam supplies were temporarily cut. The company has an annual output capacity of 18 million tonnes of refined products and 2.4 million tonnes of petrochemicals. - Reuters
