Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Won Hee-ryong (third from left in second row), (from right to left in front row) Hyundai Engineering and Construction CEO Yoon Young-Joon, Aramco Senior Vice President Abdulkarim Al Ghamdi and Total Energies Senior Vice President Francois Good on June 25 attend the signing ceremony for the Amiral project at Aramco headquarters in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. (Hyundai E&C)

By Lee Jihae

Hyundai Engineering and Construction (E&C) has won the order to build the largest petrochemical complex in Saudi Arabia.

The company on June 25 said it signed a USD 5 billion (KRW 6.5 trillion) contract for Packages 1 (ethylene plant) and 4 (utility infrastructure) of the Amiral Petrochemical Complex. The signing ceremony held the day before at Aramco headquarters in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, marked Korea's largest order from the Arab country.

Leading figures from both governments and companies attended the ceremony such as Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Won Hee-ryong, Hyundai E&C CEO Yoon Young-Joon and Aramco CEO Amin Nasser.

Ordered by Aramco, Saudi Arabia's public petroleum and natural gas corporation, the Amiral project seeks to build the Arab country's largest petrochemical complex in Jubail, 70 km northwest of Dammam, the hub of Saudi oil fields. The complex will be integrated with the Saudi Aramco Total Refining and Petrochemical Co., aka SATORP, Refinery, a joint venture between Saudi Arabia's Aramco and France's Total Energies.

Hyundai E&C's role is to build a mixed feed cracker, the project's core facility that will produce 1.65 million tons of ethylene per year using byproducts from the manufacturing process, in Package 1 and construct facilities like infrastructure, tanks and shipping facilities as well as the main infrastructure for making high value-added chemicals in Package 4.

Entering Saudi Arabia through its 1979 construction of the offshore berth of the Yanbu natural gas liquid sea terminal, the builder has built petrochemical and gas plants for Aramco over the years like the Khurais central processing and Karan gas facilities and Uthmaniyah ethane deep recovery center, building longstanding business ties with the kingdom.

"This will not only further solidify bilateral economic cooperation but also serve as a firm foundation for joint prosperity between the two countries," President Yoon Suk Yeol said about the order. "Using this as an opportunity, the government and corporations must strive harder as one team to further boost the relationship of trust between Korea and Saudi Arabia."

jihlee08@korea.kr