SABIC buys out Shell’s SADAF JV stake

SABIC is to buy out Shell’s 50% stake in the companies’ SADAF joint venture at Jubail in Saudi Arabia for US$820m.

The two companies set up SADAF in 1980, and it now produces more than 4m t/y of petrochemicals including ethylene, styrene and crude industrial ethanol (CIE), from six world-scale plants.

SADAF was initially planned to end in 2020, but Shell says that selling its stake now will allow it to focus its downstream activities. SABIC says that buying out Shell’s share will enable it to optimise the plants’ operations and better integrate them with its other operations.

“Our partnership with SABIC, spanning more than 30 years, has been a great success story. We’re proud to have established together one of the first petrochemical ventures in Saudi Arabia – it has grown substantially since the start, in 1986. We will continue to explore potential future opportunities with SABIC,” said Graham van’t Hoff, Shell executive vice president chemicals.