Owned jointly by Shell Chemicals Arabia LLC and Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC), Sadaf was established in 1980 and began operating in 1984. The company operates from one of the world's largest and most competitive petrochemical complexes in the Al Jubail industrial zone on Saudi Arabia's eastern coast. Sadaf's six world-scale manufacturing plants produce over 4.7 million tonnes of building-block petrochemicals a year, primarily sold to customers in Asia Pacific.
Products
- Ethylene (1.2 million tonnes)
- Ethylene dichloride (EDC) (840,000 tonnes)
- Caustic soda (CA) (670,000 tonnes)
- Styrene monomer (SM) (1.1 million tonnes)
- Methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE)1 (700,000 tonnes)
1 Sold by Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC)
Applications
These products are used in the manufacture of:
- Vinyl chloride monomer and polyvinyl chloride (produced using EDC)
- Alumina (produced using CA)
- Polystyrene and ABS (produced using SM)
- Gasoline additives (produced using MTBE) as an alternative to lead
Sustainable development
In addition to financial investment, Shell's contribution has been to provide technology along with technical, managerial and marketing know-how. SABIC has provided financial investment, competitive feedstock and local expertise. Together, Shell and SABIC have also recruited and developed a skilled workforce, the great majority of whom are Saudi nationals.
Exceeding original design capacities for almost all products, Sadaf has undertaken extensive certification and benchmarking procedures, and is an ISO 9002 and ISO 14001 compliant company. Since 2005, a new 250-megawatt co-generation plant (providing combined heat and power) operated by the Jubail Energy Company has transformed energy efficiency at the complex, providing around 80% of the complex's electricity requirements. In 2007, Sadaf completed a US $50 million programme to remove ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) from its refrigeration systems.
