Dow, Saudi Aramco finalize Sadara chemical JV; senior officials named
Dow Chemical and Saudi Aramco on Monday announced the official formation of Sadara Chemical Co. (Sadara), a joint venture between the two companies. Also announced were Sadara’s board of directors and its senior officers.
The Sadara board is comprised of eight members, with Abdullatif A. Al-Othman, senior vice president of engineering and project management for Saudi Aramco, as Board Chairman and James D. McIlvenny, Dow senior vice president, as the Deputy Chairman.
Other members of the Sadara board include:
• Tofiq H. Gabsani, president of Saudi Refining, Inc.;
• Michael R. Gambrell, Dow executive vice president and advisor on manufacturing and engineering to chairman & CEO;
• Abdulaziz M.Judaimi, Saudi Aramco’s vice president for chemicals;
• Ahmad O. Al-Khowaiter, Saudi Aramco chief engineer;
• Howard Ungerleider, Dow senior vice president and president of Dow’s performance plastics division;
• William H. Weideman, Dow executive vice president and chief financial officer.
A number of senior officers of the joint venture have also been named by the Sadara board:
• Ali A. Abuali, former president of Aramco Services Co., Saudi Aramco, a US-based subsidiary in Houston, has been named CEO of Sadara;
• Luciano Poli, Dow finance director for Europe, Middle East and Africa, has been named chief financial officer;
• Lee Trusty, Dow joint manufacturing program director for the Sadara project, has been named vice president for manufacturing and engineering.
• Naser M. Al-Abdulkareem, commercial director for Vela International, has been named vice president of business and services;
• Mohammed T. Al-Sellemi, director of human resources services department for Saudi Aramco, has been named vice president for industrial relations.
“Today’s announcements mark another exciting and significant step forward for Sadara as it fulfills its commitment to building and operating a world scale, fully integrated chemicals complex in Jubail Industrial City,” said Andrew Liveris, Dow’s CEO. “I’m truly delighted to see the progress that we’ve made, and I’m most impressed with this line-up of outstanding leadership for Sadara.”
Saudi Aramco CEO Khalid Al-Falih said: “Sadara is poised to become a significant contributor for Saudi Aramco’s transformational downstream growth strategy. I’m pleased to see that this game-changing enterprise has now become a reality. I am confident that Sadara will be a success story for many generations to come, and this unique partnership will help foster downstream industries and support industrial diversification that add significant value to the Kingdom’s hydrocarbon resources.”
Once complete, the JV complex now being built in Jubail will be one of the world’s largest integrated chemical facilities, and the largest ever built in a single phase.
First production units are expected to come on line in the second half of 2015. All units are expected to be up and running in 2016.
Sadara is expected to deliver annual revenues of approximately $10 billion within a few years of operation, the companies said. The JV and related investments are expected to generate thousands of direct and indirect employment opportunities.
For the JV alone, by the end of 2011, Dow and Saudi Aramco are aiming to recruit hundreds of Saudi nationals for the first batch of technical trainees for competitive and unique manufacturing and engineering training programs, the companies said.
Utilizing Dow’s cutting-edge product technologies and Saudi Aramco’s world-class project management and execution capabilities, the manufacturing units will produce a wide range of performance products such as polyurethanes (isocyanates, polyether polyols), propylene glycol, elastomers, linear low-density polyethylene, low-density polyethylene, glycol ethers and amines.
Sadara will market products within a regional zone consisting of Middle Eastern countries, including the Kingdom, it said, while Dow will leverage its global marketing know-how to market and sell on behalf of Sadara to the rest of the world.
Saudi Aramco and Dow announced their respective board authorizations to form Sadara in July 2011 and signed a joint venture shareholders’ agreement in October.
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