Andrew N Liveris, Chairman and CEO, Dow.
MIDLAND, US/DHAHRAN, SAUDI ARABIA: The Dow Chemical Company and Saudi Aramco have formed a joint venture to build and operate a world-scale, fully integrated chemicals complex in Jubail Industrial City, Saudi Arabia. The new joint venture, named “Sadara Chemical Company,” comes after an extensive project feasibility study and front-end engineering and design effort which began in 2007.
Total investment for the project, including third party investments, will be approximately $20 billion. Sadara will become an equal joint venture between Saudi Aramco and Dow after an initial public offering. In addition to equity from the partners, Export Credit Agencies and financial institutions will provide project financing to Sadara.
The complex will possess flexible cracking capabilities and will produce over 3 million metric tonne of high value-added chemical products and performance plastics.
Construction will begin immediately and first production units will come on line in the second half of 2015, with all units expected to be up and running in 2016. Once operational, Sadara is expected to deliver annual revenues of approximately $10 billion within a few years of operation and related investments in downstream value parks.
“This premier partnership is the right economic ownership model with the right partner. It is designed to capture growth in the rapidly growing sectors of energy, transportation and infrastructure, and consumer products by creating a manufacturing hub that will provide a differentiated product slate and an advantaged cost position,” said Andrew N Liveris, Chairman and CEO, Dow.
“This project represents a key milestone in Saudi Aramco’s ambitious downstream growth strategy. Dow also brings a superior mix of downstream product technologies, and world-class operational and marketing capabilities to the Sadara joint venture. These will complement the strengths of Saudi Aramco as the world’s largest integrated and most reliable supplier of energy and petroleum-based derivative products,” said Khalid Al-Falih, President and CEO, Saudi Aramco.
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