Subaiyyal Receives China's Friendship Award

BEIJING, October 07, 2009 --Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang presented his nation’s Friendship Award to Saudi Aramco’s Abdallah H. Subaiyyal on Sept. 29 during a ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Subaiyyal is the first person from the Arab world to ever receive the award.

Subaiyyal, vice president of Fujian Refining and Petrochemical Co. Ltd. (FREP), accepted the award, China’s highest prize for the contributions of foreign experts in the fields of economics, technology, education, culture and personnel training. Since 1991, the award has been presented to more than 800 experts from 55 countries.

This award, which is publicly presented on the country’s National Day on Oct. 1, takes special significance this year as it marks the People’s Republic of China’s 60th anniversary.

Sinopec vice chairman and president Wang Tianpu hosted a reception for Subaiyyal before the Sept. 29 ceremony and praised both the executive and Saudi Aramco for the assistance they have provided to the Chinese people.

“Sinopec values the long-term and stable relationship with Saudi Aramco and looks forward to more such good collaboration between the two companies in the future,” Wang said.

After the ceremony, Subaiyyal attended a banquet hosted by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.

FREP is an integrated full-conversion refining and petrochemical manufacturing complex in Fujian Province that was jointly developed by Saudi Aramco Sino Co. Ltd. (SASC), Fujian Petrochemical Co. Ltd. and ExxonMobil China Petroleum and Petrochemical Co. Ltd.

Since the formation of the FREP joint venture in June 2007, Subaiyyal has served as the company’s vice president. He is joined by a Saudi Aramco team of experts in the technical, marketing, auditing and crude-supply fields.

FREP includes a 240,000-barrel-per-day refinery and can produce up to 2.2 million metric tons of petrochemicals a year.

Construction work of the new facilities began in August 2006, and the complex became fully operational during August 2009.