Sadara Chemical has awarded a contract to Amec Foster Wheeler, part of the UK’s Wood Group since last October, for design, engineering, material specification and procurement services for two 7 km pipelines at PlasChem Park in Saudi Arabia.

The pipeline system, which Sadara said will be the first of its kind in the Middle East and North Africa, will transport ethylene oxide (EO) and propylene oxide (PO) from Sadara’s plants to companies in the industrial park for producing a range of specialty chemicals/products.

“This is a major milestone for the development of one of the most attractive clusters in PlasChem Park. The EO/PO transportation system will be commissioned just in time for the first wave of our EO and PO cluster investors,” said Sadara’s CEO, Faisal Al-Faqeer.

Sadara has previously signed EO/PO supply agreements with Harcros-ARA and SADIG-ILCO, both of which are building specialty chemicals production plants in the park, which is located in Jubail Industrial City II.

Start-up dates for the plants, and the pipeline system, have not been disclosed

In addition, Sadara has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Veolia Middle East, a division of the French industrial waste management group, to build a central utilities facility in PlasChem Park.

The central utilities “island” will incinerate industrial wastes and recover heat from the process to produce steam by-product, which Sadara said will be supplied to PlasChem Park tenants at an attractive price. The facility will also produce cooled water and compressed air, which will also be made available to companies on the site.

Veolia and prospective partners will invest in and develop the project. Sadara said it will only act as a facilitator to ensure the project’s success.