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Sadara Chemical Company, a joint venture between The Dow Chemical Company and Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco), was inaugurated by His Majesty, King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, representing the strategic significance of Sadara to the country’s growth and economic diversification strategy Saudi Vision 2030.
Andrew Liveris, Dow’s Chairman and CEO, was invited to deliver remarks at the event, which was also attended by His Royal Highness, the Deputy Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud, Second Deputy Premier and Minister of Defense; His Excellency Khalid A. Al-Falih, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources and Chairman of Saudi Aramco; Amin H Nasser, Chief Executive Officer of Saudi Aramco; and other distinguished guests including Sadara’s Board of Directors and leadership members.
Comprising 26 manufacturing units, Sadara is one of the world’s largest integrated chemical facilities and the largest ever built in a single phase. The complex possesses flexible cracking capabilities and will produce more than 3M metric tons of high-value performance plastics and speciality chemical products, capitalising on rapidly growing markets, such as transportation, infrastructure, packaging and consumer products. The performance-focused products will add new value chains to the Kingdom’s vast petroleum reserves, resulting in the diversification of the economy and region.
Sadara will employ thousands of talented Saudis and foreign nationals and will help diversify the economy by adding value to the Kingdom’s vast petroleum reserves and making chemical products not produced before in the Middle East. Dow has estimated that the project will create 14,000 new jobs in Saudi Arabia, ~4,000 of which are from direct employment and the rest indirectly.
The complex has started its Mixed Feed Cracker and commissioned three polyethylene trains, qualifying 25 products to date and shipping polyethylene to nearly 100 customers in more than 25 countries. Sadara remains on schedule for a sequenced start-up process, continuing with the polyethylene and polyolefins envelope, the propylene oxide/isocyanates/polyurethanes envelope, and finally the ethylene oxide/propylene oxide/specialty chemicals units.
