The company will use its Spherizone technology at the 450,000tpa plant

Basell and partner Sahara Petrochemical Holding, a subsidiary of the Riyadh-based Al-Zamil Group, are to build a 450,000tpa polypropylene plant at Jubail, in Saudi Arabia.

Scheduled to come on-stream in 2007, the venture is Basell’s second investment in the kingdom and will employ the Spherizone technology, launched by the company in 2002. Basell will market all of the unit’s output.

The plant will use propane dehydrogenation technology from UOP to convert propane from Saudi Aramco to provide feedstock. Basell’s first partnership in the country is Saudi Polyolefins, with National Petrochemical Industrialisation Company, which started up earlier this year.

Spherizone is claimed by Basell to be the biggest advance in polypropylene manufacture for 20 years. The technology allows granules to circulate continuously between two interconnecting zones, giving greater homogeneity.