When the West becomes too busy to worry about petro chemicals: The world will still need petro to run a business

By Tim Larkin and Ben Curtis in WashingtonD.

C.

A group of leading energy companies including Shell and Saudi Aramco are investing billions of dollars in developing petro-chemicals to fight the spread of global warming.

The companies say their investments are part of a broader push to combat the growing threat of climate change and the threat of a potential new pandemic.

Shell, the world’s largest oil producer, is working with Chinese state-owned oil giant Sinopec to develop and commercialize petro compounds that are expected to be commercially available by 2030, according to people familiar with the matter.

Saudi Aramco, the biggest producer in the Middle East, is also working with major petro chemical makers to develop petro alternatives, the people said.

SinopEC, which also owns Al-Farabi Petrochemical Corp., has been investing billions in petro products, including petro deuterium and deuteron.

Al-Arabian reported on Monday that it had received a $1 billion loan from Sinopek, a unit of Saudi Aramcom, to develop a petro alternative.

The company said in a statement it is in the process of making significant investments in petroglyphs and in other areas of development.

Petro-chemical producers in the U.S. and Europe have been ramping up investments in research and development and have been expanding their operations in recent years.

The global supply of petro substances, especially deuterones, is expected to increase from about 20 million tons in 2013 to about 400 million tons by 2020.