Saudi’s Sadara starts region’s first mixed-feed cracker

Sadara Chemical, a $20bn petrochemical joint venture between national oil giant Saudi Aramco and Dow Chemical, has started operating its mixed-feed cracker at the venture’s petrochemical complex in Jubail.

The facility on the Gulf coast of Saudi Arabia, the first mixed-feed cracker in the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, can process both ethane and naphtha.

Sadara Basic Services Co, a fully owned unit of Sadara Chemical, announced the start-up in a brief statement to the Saudi stock exchange on Sunday, saying the financial impact on the company would be reflected by the end of the third quarter.

In January, Sadara’s chief executive Ziad al-Labban told Reuters that the cracker was scheduled to be commissioned in March and would eventually reach feeds of 85 million standard cubic feet per day of ethane and 50,000 barrels per day of naphtha.

The Sadara complex, comprising 26 integrated facilities, is the largest petrochemical facility to be built in a single phase. All facilities are scheduled to be commissioned by the end of 2017.

Last December, Sadara said it had started producing its first petrochemicals, with the first output of solution polyethylene shipped to China.