Deal Secured to invest £850Million in SABIC plant on Teesside
1,000 local jobs created and protected
Last updated 28th Oct 2021
Tees Valley leaders have welcomed a major investment by Saudi Aramco of nearly one billion pounds into SABIC in Teesside, creating and safeguarding 1,000 good quality local.
The deal will see SABIC’s parent company inject £850million into the Teesside business ending months of uncertainty for thousands of local workers and those in the firms supply chain.
The new funding will mean its hydrocarbon cracker at Wilton can be restarted. The cracker, known as the Olefins 6 plant, breaks down hydrocarbons into chemicals such as ethylene which are then used in a host of further processes, and has been shut down for over a year.
SABIC have also confirmed that they will explore converting the cracker to run electricity, making it the world’s first cracker to be converted to run on electricity, if successfully SABIC will convert all of their crackers around the globe. Once again showing Teesside leading the way in innovation.
The investment comes following months of intense negotiations my Mayor Houchen and ministers which culminated in the metro mayor meeting Yousef Abdullah Al-Benyan, the global Chief Executive of Sabic, earlier this month at the Global Investment Summit hosted by the Prime Minster.
Mayor Houchen said: “This has taken a huge amount of time, effort and political diplomacy to get this investment over the line. This commitment from SABIC is yet another huge vote of confidence in our world-beating chemicals and processing industries and will create and safeguard 1,000 skilled, well-paid jobs for local workers.
“SABIC is absolutely central to the future success of the checmical industry in the UK and is especially important to Teesside. This funding further strengthens our regional ties with SABIC and puts them front and centre of our regional economy. Since the cracker was mothballed last year there has been some uncertainty about the future of the plant and the impact it would have on other chemical companies in the area that use SABIC. This announcement will remove this uncertainty once and give confidence to investors and workers across our area.
“I would like to thank Yousef Abdullah Al-Benyan who has taken a particular interest in this project. He understands how important SABIC’s Wilton site is to our area and to the future of the company and their plans to help us lead the way towards net zero.
“Investments like these, and those that we are securing in hydrogen, offshore wind and carbon capture that are taking shape across Teesside, Darlington and Hartlepool bring about less pollution, and drive forward an environment that, like these industries, is also cleaner, healthier and safer.”
Redcar MP Jacob Young said: “SABIC is an integral part of our region’s chemicals and processing industries and this funding commitment will secure the plant for the long-term. They have a highly skilled workforce and this news, which will create and safeguard 1,000 jobs, will be a huge relief for them following the uncertainty created by the mothballing of the cracker.”