Motiva advances aromatics project

Motiva, Saudi Aramco’s US refining business, has executed a license from Honeywell UOP for aromatics technology to make benzene and p-xylene at its complex in Port Arthur, Texas. The company had been planning an aromatics complex and ethylene cracker for the site since 2018 but put that project on the back burner. Motiva hasn’t made a final investment decision. “The demand growth for petrochemical feedstocks is expected to continue to outpace that of gasoline and diesel,” Motiva CEO Jeff Rinker says in a statement.