Middle East and Asia: Key Regions for Our Refining and Chemicals Activities

10/29/2024

From Saudi Arabia to Japan, TotalEnergies has become a leading refining and chemicals player in the Middle East and Asia. Our Company has established a number of strategic locations in the region, including integrated refining-petrochemicals platforms, and projects to produce sustainable aviation fuel and eSAF, as part of our mission to meet growing energy demand while tackling the challenges of the energy transition.

On the one hand, TotalEnergies’ origins lie in the Middle East. Over the decades, our Company has forged its reputation as a top-tier partner for oil and gas-producing countries and national corporations. On the other hand, Asia is a continent where energy demand continues to climb sharply, with a 250% increase in total energy consumption between 1990 and 2023*. These two regions are key to the development of our refining and chemicals business.

Our strategy for refining and chemicals

As the 11th largest refiner and 13th largest petrochemist in the world, TotalEnergies produces the fuels and plastics that are essential for everyday life from oil and gas, as well as from bio-based and recycled raw materials. Our refining and chemicals strategy is based on three pillars:

  • reinforce our industrial competitive advantage,
  • achieve growth in petrochemicals, and
  • develop products with a low-carbon footprint to meet our customers’ expectations.

Working hand in hand with local partners

In Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, South Korea, Japan and China, our development in Asia and the Middle East is mainly driven by joint ventures with local players.

Three of our six integrated refining and chemicals platforms in the Middle East and Asia are joint ventures, namely the Qatar platform in the country of the same name, SATORP in Saudi Arabia, and Daesan in South Korea. Within these joint ventures, we take special care to support our partners in reinforcing safety and improving how operations are carried out.

We have also chosen this model for developing new low-carbon activities. With Sinopec in China and Eneos in Japan, we are working on projects to produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) for the local market from waste or residue sourced from the circular economy. We are also looking into the prospect of a co-processing arrangement to produce SAF at our three longstanding platforms. In the United Arab Emirates, we are collaborating with Masdar to trial the production of eSAF from methanol.

We can draw on our ability to forge and consolidate robust partnerships to develop synergies between the Company’s different business segments and power our multi-energy strategy in these regions. We are aspiring to become a leading partner in Asia and the Middle East and meet growing energy demand, while tackling the challenges of the energy transition.
Thomas Maurisse Senior Vice President Refining & Petrochemicals Asia & Middle East, SVP Strategy & Growth, TotalEnergies

Closer look at Amiral, an iconic petrochemicals project in line with our sustainable development strategy

Integrated with the SATORP refinery near Jubail in Saudi Arabia, Amiral is a major petrochemicals project that we are developing with Saudi Aramco. With an investment of $11 billion, a steam cracker with a capacity of 1.65 million tons of ethylene per year and two polyethylene lines with a combined capacity of one million tons per year, this giant project is aimed at satisfying Asia’s growing demand for petrochemicals.

But the Amiral petrochemicals project has also been designed to reduce its carbon and environmental footprint: the SATORP/Amiral complex will emit no more CO2 than the platform did before the project began. By creating 7,000 direct and indirect local jobs, Amiral is also contributing to the region’s economic and social development.

In addition to increasing petrochemical production capacity, this project heralds a major step towards more sustainable operations with lower CO2 emissions, in line with TotalEnergies’ environmental ambitions in the region.
Thomas Maurisse Senior Vice President Refining & Petrochemicals Asia & Middle East, SVP Strategy & Growth, TotalEnergies

Find out more

Amiral: a petrochemical complex integrated with the SATORP refinery

In Saudi Arabia, TotalEnergies and the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Aramco) are working together to develop a modern and efficient refining and petrochemicals platform.

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