SABIC was formed in 1976 to harness some of its country's natural gas byproduct. "It used to be burned in the desert," said Dabibi. "You could see the flames from 60 miles out."
      Today, chances are you can see SABIC complexes from some distance away. The company maintains 18 of them in Saudi Arabia and has two in the Netherlands and Germany. In addition to involvement in various international joint ventures, SABIC now has 12 international affiliates, and the company operates technical centers in the U.S., Europe, India and the eastern Saudi provinces. Among the company's U.S. operations are research and technology centers in New Jersey and Houston, distribution and storage facilities in Houston, Wilmington, N.C., and Payne, N.J.; and subsidiary headquarters and sales offices in Houston.
      As of 2004, SABIC had $33 billion in assets, spread among six strategic business units: basic chemicals; intermediates; polyolefins; PVC and polyester; fertilizers and metals. Those assets helped the company realize 2004 revenue of $18 billion, up from $7 billion in 2000. Approximately 18 percent of current production is in PVC and polyester and polyolefins, with 44 percent in basic chemicals and 18 percent in intermediates.
      Part of the reason is the growing capacity share the company is seeing in Asia and the Middle East. And as Dabibi pointed out, "cheap feedstock and proximity are the optimal combination" when it comes to locating new projects. With respect to ethylene economics where those two criteria are concerned, Goldman Sachs research shows that the Middle East, China, Alberta, Malaysia and Taiwan are in the best position, followed in order by Singapore, U.S. (naphtha-based), Korea, U.S. (ethane-based), Western Europe and Japan.
      Right now SABIC's opportunities are located in 26 different industrial cities in Saudi Arabia. The country's Industrial Development Fund (SIDF) will even help them along, contributing anywhere from 2.5 percent to 5.5 percent of consultancy fees for business case research and assessment, in addition to a range of loan options. Other active industrial development entities in the country include the Royal Commission of Jubail & Yanbu.
      Dabibi said the company is concentrating on plastics, noting that Saudi Arabia has gone from fewer than 100 converters in-kingdom in the 1980s to more than 500 in 2002. The company's ethylene production ends up in everything from polyethylene trash cans to PVC to PET packaging, polystyrene and polyester. And its propylene production goes toward polypropylene packaging and parts, plasticizers, acrylic and nylon and the cumene that is the primary ingredient in CDs and DVDs.
      Here are a few highlights of the 150 proposed SABIC projects looking for partners:

• A projected $32.5-million, 17-employee amino resin operation that would serve Western Europe, Japan and the U.S.
• A $6-million child safety chair project that would employ 110 and use both polypropylene and polyethylene. This project would see 50 percent of its funding from an SIDF loan.
• A $73-million polyether polyol plant that would employ 32 and serve the Gulf, Western Europe, Japan and the U.S. polyurethane, flexible foam and rigid foam markets. Many of the end products are in the furniture, bedding and construction foam products, both flexible and rigid.

      Meanwhile the company's own projects include a $176-million, 800,000-metric-tons-per-year polyethylene plant at Petrokemya, one of 17 project tenders in the kingdom by SABIC in 2004.