AHG Group to invest $20m in Saudi industrial gas facility

Saudi industrial gas company AHG Group has unveiled plans to spend $20m on an industrial gas production facility in Damman in Saudi Arabia.

The project is part of AHG’s strategy to expand in both local and regional markets, increase its production of industrial gases, and expand its supply chain.

“This project … demonstrates our commitment to the industrial and manufacturing transformation taking place under the kingdom’s Vision 2030 [programme],” said Khalid Abdullah Hasim, CEO of the AHG.

Saudi Vision 2030 is Saudi Arabia’s long-term strategy to transform its economy, with over $1 trillion invested in various infrastructure projects such as Neom – a $500bn smart city that includes a green gases plant – and the Red Sea Project.

One focus of this plan is sourcing more products – such as industrial gases – locally and reducing imports.

Speaking about the project, Hamid Sabzikari, COO of AHG Group, said, “The investment … kicked off [in] May and will be executed by our in-house engineering and project execution teams within 20 months.”

Saudi demand for industrial gases is expected to increase due to ongoing and planned large-scale petrochemical projects in the region.

This includes the Jubail New Petrochemical Complex, operated by Sadara, which has a planned production capacity of eight million tonnes of petrochemicals and gasoline per year.

And the Advanced Petrochemical Company has a complex producing propylene and polypropylene, with expansion plans, and Petrokemya has ongoing projects like the Al-Jubail Ethylene Plant 1 expansion and the MTBE plant expansion.

These projects use industrial gases including nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen for various stages of petrochemical production, including separation, purification, and reaction processes.