Syria Business 2004/4/18

Daaboul launches major petrochem plant
http://www.ameinfo.com/news/Detailed/37974.html

Daaboul has built a major LAB plant in partnership with Saudi Arabia's Al Rajhi and financing from IFC. The project is one of the major private sector industrial ventures in the country.

Syria's Daaboul Economic Group has launched, in partnership with Saudi Arabia's al-Rajhi a 40,000 tonne Linear Alkyl Benzene (LAB) plant, the second largest plant of this type in the region in terms of production capacity and the 23rd in the world.
LAB is the major feedstock required to produce all kinds of detergents, from liquid soap to dishwasher powder.

The United Joint Stock Company for Petrochemical Industries is a SYP 2.3 billion (US$ 44 million) investment and will help in the integration of the Daaboul Economic Group (DEG) which is the largest producer of detergents in Syria, offering laundry powders, dishwashing paste, and cleaning and disinfecting liquids. Daaboul Detergents already produces 35,000 tonnes a year (t/y) of powder, 15,000 t/y of paste, and 15,000 t/y of liquid cleaners.

The plant was built with technology from US firm UOP LLC and will serve both the domestic market, whose annual demand of LAB is estimated at around 40,000 tonnes, and export markets. DEG already exports its products to Saudi Arabia, Morocco as well as some Eastern European countries.

The plant is located in Deir-Ali, 30km south of Damascus on the Amman highway. The project is the first of the many investments planned in the petrochemical industry in Syria, although the public sector is involved in most other ventures. Daaboul itself is reported to be planning to build a USD22 million paraffin refinery to produce kerosene for aeroplanes and industrial chemicals.

The project has been partly financed with a loan from the International Finance Corporation, which is lending USD 13 million, only the third IFC involvement in Syria since the resumption of activities in the country of the World Bank Group. IFC's commitment is also the first to come as a loan, after it took equity stakes in its two previous ventures, Adritec, an irrigation pipes manufacturing company and BSOM, one of the two private banks that started operations early January.


The Plastics Exchange 2005/12/27

Syria, Russia sign 2.7bn dollar deal to build oil complex in Syria

Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Dr Ibrahim Haddad and Director General of the Russian Company for Investment Credit Line Pyrev Nizami signed a memorandum of understanding to build a
2.7bn dollar oil complex consisting of an oil refinery and a petrochemical complex in the Syrian province Dayr al-Zur.

The memorandum states that Credit Line would build the refinery through an adequate company in terms of protecting the environment and provision of raw oil to operate the project by importing it from abroad or from local markets, if available, in current world prices as decided by the Oil Marketing Commission at the Syrian premiership. The Russian company will also be committed to build a petrochemical complex with an annual capacity of 1.6 million tons of oil and finish the project within five years maximum. The Syrian side will be committed to providing the land for the project as well as carrying out the infrastructure, including water, electricity, roads and administrative facilities. The Minister told SANA staff writer following that signing of the memorandum that the production capacity of the oil refinery would be at 140,000 bpd, adding that around 2,000 workers from different skills and specialties will be needed to do the work at the refinery. He added that the by-products of the complex will be various, such as
home gas, polyethylene, polypropylene, gasoline and octane as items very important for chemical industries in Syria. This factory will need at least 1,000 workers to be completed, and the surplus [production] could be exported. The minister said Syria's share of the profits will be 15 per cent in the first 10 years, 30 per cent in the next five years, 45 per cent in the next five years and 60 per cent in the next five years. The whole project will be transferred to Syria after 25 years of investment.