The Sadara Chemical Company is a joint venture that creates synergy between Saudi Aramco and one of the world’s leading science and technology companies, The Dow Chemical Company. With an investment of around U.S. $20 billion, it is under construction in Jubail Industrial City on Saudi Arabia’s eastern coast, and will be the largest integrated chemical complex ever built in a single phase in the world.

As a cornerstone of Saudi Aramco’s downstream strategy, Sadara will be a hydrocarbon and chlorine-based facility with 26 state-of-the-art manufacturing units capable of producing up to 3.2 million tons of diversified plastic and chemical products. These products will enable Saudi-owned companies to make plastic bags, detergents and foam materials for both domestic and international markets, creating thousands of direct and indirect jobs.

With full commercial operations expected to begin in 2016, Sadara will introduce many new products to the Kingdom, such as isocyanates and polyols plants, and become the first chemical complex to crack naphtha in GCC countries — taking the Saudi chemical industry far beyond its existing commodity products. Sadara’s unique product portfolio and cutting-edge technologies will be key to Saudi Arabia becoming a hub for the future downstream industrialization of chemicals and plastics, and ultimately, will transform Saudi Aramco’s existing chemical landscape.