Riyadh – Mubasher: Sadara Basic Services Company, 100% owned by Sadara Chemical Company (Sadara), announced the startup of the mixed feed cracker (MFC) on 28 August.

“The 12-furnace MFC is designed to produce ethylene and propylene from ethane and naphtha feedstocks,” according to a bourse filing on Sunday.

Seven furnaces will be used to crack ethane (gas), while the remaining five will be used to crack naphtha (liquid), from which three have the ability to swing between gas and liquid feedstock.

The cracker unit has an ethylene nameplate capacity of 1,500 kilotonnes and a propylene nameplate capacity of 400 kilotonnes per year, the statement said.

MFC is one of the 26 world scale plants that are being built in the Sadara complex located in Jubail Industrial City II.

The other manufacturing units in Sadara are converting the ethylene and propylene produced by the MFC to a wide range of value-added plastics and specialty chemicals, the company said.

The financial impact of the operation is expected to appear by the end of the third quarter of 2016.