Motiva is wholly-owned by affiliates of Saudi Aramco. The signing of the MoUs coincided with the recent official visit to the United States by the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman.

“These agreements signal our plans for expansion into petrochemicals,” said Brian Coffman, president and CEO of Motiva. “We are excited to work more closely with these leaders in the industry to further assess our opportunities for investment.”

One of the MoUs paves the way to evaluate the use of TechnipFMC’s world scale mixed-feed ethylene production technologies in the US. The second MOU enables Motiva to examine the use of Honeywell UOP’s world scale aromatics extraction and production technologies for benzene and paraxylene for development of a potential complex along the US Gulf Coast.

The MoUs are a first step in Motiva’s expansion into petrochemicals. Final investment decisions on these projects are not expected to be made until 2019 and are dependent on strong economics, competitive incentives, and regulatory support, Motiva said in a press release.

Headquartered in Houston, Texas, Motiva refines, distributes and markets petroleum products throughout the US. Its refinery in Port Arthur, Texas has a crude capacity of 630,000 barrels a day. The company also operates the country’s largest lubricant plant. (RKS)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk – India