Aramco’s USD 19.3 billion joint ventureto come online in 2016

Saudi Arabian Oil Co. (Aramco) and the Dow Chemical Co.’s USD 19.3 billion (SAR 72 billion) joint venture in Jubail,Sadara Chemical Co, will start production in 2016 as construction works in the petrochemical complex is due to be finalized by mid-2015.

Sadara, which plans to list 25 percent of its capital on the Saudi stock market, will be one of the world’s largest integrated chemical complexes and the largest ever built in one phase.

The company completed the finance requirements of the project last year, and half of the construction workshave been already finalized, said Ziad al-Labban, Sadara’s Chief Executive Officer.

By the end of February, 70 percent of the complex’s utilities and 68 percent of the cracker and polyethylene units were completed.

The complex, the first in the Middle East that makes direct use of feedstock like naftha, will produce over three million tonnes of end products, including polyurethane, propylene oxide, glycol propylene, glycol ether and polyethylene.

Aramco will sell 20 percent of the output within the Middle East, and Dow will market the remaining percentage worldwide